Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Moto2 championship has been the rise to the forefront of some complete unknowns, in terms of riders, teams and manufacturers. While 2010 champion Toni Elias was the rider most widely tipped for the title at the start of the season, very few people expected Simone Corsi, Jules Cluzel or the sadly lamented Shoya Tomizawa to be such a regular feature at the front of the grid. Likewise, the Aspar and Gresini teams were expected to do well, while the names of Marc VDS Racing and Technomag were completely unheard of.
Likewise, the names of many of the bikes on the grid were unfamiliar. Though Suter's name was known from the Swiss designer's work on the Kawasaki and Ilmor MotoGP bikes, and Moriwaki is a very famous name in Superbikes and Endurance racing, the likes of FTR and Kalex were virtually unknown. For FTR, their relative obscurity belied their long involvement in the sport, the Buckinghamshire-based engineering firm having produced parts for teams in MotoGP and World Superbikes for many years, but with Andrea Iannone winning on a rebranded FTR, and Alex Debon and Karel Abraham scoring podiums on the bike, the British firm has put its name firmly in the spotlights.
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