At last – it’s here! The long-anticipated first round of the 2026 FIM Motocross World Championships takes place this weekend as the YPF Infinia MXGP of Argentina hits the new venue of the Bariloche MX Race Track! With more GP winners than ever before lining up for the premier MXGP class, the excitement and intrigue as to who will emerge victorious at each and every round is set to make this an explosive season of racing at its very best!
Words and Images by Infront Moto Racing
For the very first time since both classes were conceived, both MXGP and MX2 World Champions will be easily identifiable with the #1 plates that they will be looking to defend, but for just how long will they stay on those shiny new red backings? There are many out to dethrone them!
The new venue sits just 85km south of the old Villa La Angostura circuit, in the Patagonia region near the border with Chile. The nearby city of San Carlos de Bariloche lies on the south shore of the Nahuel Huapi glacial lake which laps the feet of the Andes Mountains. It is doubtlessly one of the most outstanding areas of natural beauty on the planet.
The city itself is the third most visited city in all of Argentina, relying on tourism thanks to its legendary hiking trails, ski resorts and water sports facilities. It is also famous for its chocolate, so many of the team members’ families will have placed their orders for gifts already! It becomes the sixth circuit to host Grand Prix Motocross in the South American nation, which hosts its 18th MXGP event, and the season opener for the sixth time.
After last year’s event was held in sweltering conditions, this more southern region is much further from the equator, promising a milder climate and a softer surface than in Córdoba. The track plan and images suggest a similar fast layout with elevation changes, and will hopefully be just as popular as the previous Argentine circuits we have enjoyed!
As the season opener in a time zone just four hours ahead of mainland Europe, there should be a huge demand for coverage on MXGP-TV with a perfect prime-time viewing schedule to kick start the 2026 World Championships!
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The line-up for the MXGP class is simply breath-taking in 2026. To summarise, there are eight World Champions with 18 titles between them. 15 of the riders have got Grand Prix winner’s trophies in their cabinets, with a total of 317 victories to their names – enough for nearly 16 full seasons of GP wins!
There are incredible stories wherever you look in 2026. So let’s start at the top! Reigning World Champion Romain Febvre will brandish the well-earned #1 plate on his Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP machine, after taking his second world title a record ten years after his first in a consistent season that saw him hold back his chasing rivals from round seven onwards. Although he has liked both of the Argentine circuits he’s raced on, he has won only one Qualifying Race and one GP race in his eight trips to the country, finishing second overall at each of the last two visits. Do not put it past the crafty Frenchman to go one better and keep his #1 on a shiny red plate!
Second in 2026 was the rider who has won more GPs than anyone over the last two seasons on his way to the silver medal in first the MX2 class, then MXGP! Lucas Coenen has changed nothing but his number for 2026, as he now runs with the #5 on his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing steed, and the Belgian will look for nothing less than title success in his final campaign as a teenager! However, his three visits to Argentina have not been too kind to him, with an MX2 Qualifying Race win in 2024 giving him his only career red plate so far, but a crash on race day took it away from him instantly. Will he get another this time around?
Last year’s top two have stayed in their previous teams, but their challengers with the biggest reputations have both undergone a massive change in programme for the first time in over a decade! Both five-time World Champions in the field, Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings and Slovenian Tim Gajser, have switched teams for the first time in their long MXGP careers, and a massive part of the intrigue this season is just how well they will cope with the different landscapes they have put themselves in.
Herlings, the GP win record holder at 112 victories and counting, is now with the new-look Honda HRC Petronas outfit, after sixteen years of being on Austrian machinery, and it will take some getting used to when the #84 hits a GP track on a Japanese bike for the first time. Only two of the 31-year-old’s victories have come in Argentina, with 2018 being his only success in the MXGP class after he enjoyed a perfect MX2 weekend in 2016.
Gajser has left HRC after 12 years to join the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP squad, and he lines up with the best record of anybody in Argentina with three GP wins, seven podiums, five race wins and three Qualifying race wins! After injury derailed his 2025 title challenge, he is just as hungry as Herlings for his sixth world title, and has looked fantastic in preseason races. The only GP winner ever to hail from Slovenia, Tim will be tough to beat despite the change to blue as he prepares to turn 30 in September.
There is yet more mystery on the horizon as no less than THREE former World MX2 Champions join the MXGP class for their first year on 450 machinery! 2024 Champion Kay de Wolf, 2023 Champion Andrea Adamo, and double Champ Tom Vialle from 2020 & ’22 all enter the fray, making it the single biggest influx of dazzling talent to come into MXGP since the class was conceived in the early 2000s!
De Wolf has spent his entire professional career with the Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing team, and has been playing on their 450 for the last two years at least, so the tall Dutchman will be very used to the bigger bike from the very first gate drop. A preseason hand injury might be the biggest obstacle in his path, but he will be looking forward to not being at such a disadvantage off the start line as he was in MX2. He has come away with the winner’s trophy, and MX2 red plate, after both of the last two trips to South America.
Adamo takes the place of Herlings for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and has been instantly fast on the SX-F 450. After a Qualifying Race win last year, his 2025 Argentine GP was sabotaged by a mechanical issue in race one before he took second in race two, wondering what might have been. He is something of an underdog amongst this level of competition, but that is a position in which the gutsy Italian tends to thrive!
Vialle has been absent from the GP scene altogether since he took the 2022 MX2 crown at the very last gasp, but he has also looked great in preseason as he joins the Honda HRC Petronas team alongside Herlings. With his new #16 plate, the 25-year-old Frenchman could also be an underdog, even though he won at Neuquen in his last visit to Argentina. His performance in 2026 is possibly one of the most difficult to predict.
The rider who took the MX2 crown between Vialle’s two titles is the one who took the red plate home from last year’s journey to this country, his compatriot Maxime Renaux. Staying with Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, for whom he took that 2021 title and won overall at Córdoba last year, will be keen to show himself as an equal to his new teammate Gajser and get off to just the sort of start he did in 2025. A strong opening round will be the perfect fuel for the French 25-year-old’s confidence to put himself amongst the top runners!
Another with new teammates to deal with is Ruben Fernandez, who lines up again for Honda HRC Petronas after claiming fourth in the world for the team last year. His sole GP victory came in the Argentine round in 2023, and he would dearly love to upstage his more heralded teammates as well as every other contender as he heads to his home GP for round two!
Also staying with his previous team is 2017 MX2 World Champion Pauls Jonass, back with Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP for his eighth season in the class. Having won two MX2 GPs in Argentina in 2017 & ’18, he also took his only ever Qualifying race win in the MXGP class back in 2022, so the South American air has usually done him a power of good. Determined to stay healthy for an entire season, he could be a surprise podium contender at Bariloche.
With two new riders alongside their most successful rider to date, Ducati Factory Racing MXGP will be looking to make further progress after they shocked the field with multiple holeshots in Argentina last year! With Calvin Vlaanderen and Andrea Bonacorsi joining Swiss veteran Jeremy Seewer, they have riders who were sixth, eighth, and tenth in the final 2025 MXGP standings, with a great mix of youth and experience to drive the Italian manufacturer forward in its second full season of dirt bike racing.
Two further Italian manufacturers head to Bariloche with completely new line-ups in their hopes for further success. Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, after taking the 2025 MXGP bronze medal with Glenn Coldenhoff, have now come under the management of former World Champion Jacky Martens, and bring Alberto Forato and Brent van Doninck onto factory machinery for the first time in their careers. Both have suffered recent disappointment in Argentina and will be hoping for a safe weekend.
MRT Racing Team Beta have brought in four-time MX2 silver medallist Jago Geerts, who is looking for a career resurrection after two tough years in the premier class. Jago has won two GPs, three races, and two Qualifying races in Argentina, and will be hoping to rediscover his MX2 speed in 2026. He is joined by Dutchman Rick Elzinga, the former EMX250 Champion who is making his MXGP debut in 2026. The team are quietly hopeful for a solid season from their new recruits.
The privateer charge is led by Team Honda Motoblouz SR Motul, as they have brought in another fast MXGP rookie in the shape of Thibault Benistant, ready to hit a GP track on a bike that isn’t blue for the first time, and a potential force if he gets out of the gate well. Hard-charging Norwegian Kevin Horgmo is back for his third year with the team, and could be another surprise package. The pair were third and fourth in the 2023 Argentine MX2 GP, and will likely push each other up the order through the year.
Jan Pancar is still with his own TEM JP253 KTM Racing outfit, and hoping to break the top ten of the series after finishing 11th in the Championship last year. Venrooy KTM Racing have picked up Mattia Guadagnini for 2026, and the 23-year-old Italian took a fine fourth in Argentina last year, so watch for another fast start for the #101. Isak Gifting returns for a third year with JK Racing Yamaha, while Kevin Brumann makes the trip for MX-Handel Husqvarna Racing. Finally, two more privateers make their MXGP debut in the shape of Spaniard Oriol Oliver for Gabriel SS24 KTM, and Swede Leopold Ambjornsson for Team Leoparden Racing.
With plenty of fast South Americans ready to join the fun, including fast Brazilian Nations veteran Enzo Lopes, the start line will be packed for the first gate drop of what promises to be an enthralling season of MXGP racing! Who will emerge triumphant is literally anyone’s guess!
The stage is set, the machines are prepared, and the athletes are ready to start what should be a landmark year in World Championship Motocross racing, spanning 19 rounds across 17 countries and five continents, the biggest global series in the sport is set to excite, delight, and astound fans in 2026! Do not be missing a single wheel churning the dirt! Here we go!
Saturday’s Time Practice, the Qualifying Race, and all four GP races will be broadcast LIVE on MXGP’s streaming service www.MXGP-TV.com
15 Grand Prix Winners entered in MXGP for Argentina:
Jeffrey Herlings – 112 GP Wins
Tim Gajser – 52 GP Wins
Romain Febvre – 26
Jago Geerts – 24
Tom Vialle – 24
Lucas Coenen – 16
Kay de Wolf – 15
Jeremy Seewer – 13
Pauls Jonass – 12
Maxime Renaux – 9
Andrea Adamo – 6
Thibault Benistant – 3
Calvin Vlaanderen – 2
Mattia Guadagnini – 2
Ruben Fernandez – 1
MXGP of Argentina – Entry List
2026_YPF_MXGP_of_Argentina_EntryList_MXGP (1)TIMETABLE (Local Timing UTC-3)
SATURDAY: 09:15-09:45 Blåkläder Start Practice MX2, 09:50-10:20 Blåkläder Start Practice MXGP, 10:45 MX2 Free Practice, 11:15 MXGP Free Practice, 13:20 MX2 Time Practice, 14:00 MXGP Time Practice, 15:25 MX2 Qualifying Race, 16:10 MXGP Qualifying Race.
SUNDAY: 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 12:15 MX2 Race 1, 13:15 MXGP Race 1, 15:10 MX2 Race 2, 16:10 MXGP Race 2.
