This year’s MXGP season was one of high drama, some big surprises and of course, a sixth world title for “The Bullet”, Jeffrey Herlings. When the season was previewed in January of this year, the big news was Herlings to Honda and Tim Gajser to Yamaha. Of course, one turned out great, the other, well, less than great.

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I think like many of us, when the release came out on January 1, that Herlings was signing with Honda, we were all excited. It was common knowledge, but a press release with it becoming official, is always cool, and I sure wish some media would shut their mouths and leave it to the teams and riders to release this news, rather than one rumour after another, as it takes away a lot of the excitement and so many rumours don’t come true anyway.

The Yamaha release on Gajser was less than exciting and as it turned out, that was pretty much how the whole season was for Yamaha and while nobody wants to see somebody like Hans Corvers rejected from the paddock, Yamaha have been known to dump people pretty easily and now Corvers joins Louis Vosters and many others on the blue scrapheap.

As for the rise of Jeffrey Herlings, well, it’s been exciting and good for the sport, as Herlings has been the most polarized rider in the sport, USA or Europe for probably 15 years now and we all love it.

His battles with exciting young sensation in Lucas Coenen was enough to make you a Herlings believer again, and when the Belgian went out injured in England earlier in the year, it became a Herlings domination, with victory after victory, until his captured his sixth world title.

This year’s championship fits nicely with his MX2 titles from 2012, 2013 and 2016 and his MXGP championships from 2018 and 2021. What was more important though, Herlings (rightly so) is above all-time greats, Eric Geboers, Georges Jobe, Roger De Coster, Joel Smets and Tim Gajser, in the all-time list.

Herlings in many people eyes is the GOAT of GP racing, but injuries have cost him dearly and for me, numbers don’t lie and its still Stefan Everts, followed by Antonio Cairoli and now, Jeffrey Herlings. Is Herlings the fastest GP rider ever, that is a question that is hard to answer, but for me, he is. He battled Cairoli in his prime and beat him on most occasions and a fight with Everts when both were in their primes would have been very, very interesting.

The fact Herlings joins Joel Robert with six world titles is sensational. I mean, Robert had been the king of statistics with his six-world title and 50 GP wins, until Everts came along in the early 2000s and broke both his fellow Belgians records. What a brilliant era that was as we followed “The King” and waited as he caught and passed the great Robert as the greatest GP rider ever.

This year was a similar story, in fact, Herlings has been chasing records now for a long time and his charge to 125 GP victories have been fantastic to watch and his victory this year and that sixth world championship is without question, one of the great moments from the last two decades.

Now that, as Herlings takes his short winter break, before blasting into 2027 with the same determination as he had in 2026, it’s hard to see anyone beat him and him not collect his seventh world championships. Of course, injuries have always been a part of Herlings career, but on the Honda, he looks so smooth, sharp and in complete control, that even broken bones seem unlikely.

No doubt a long list of former world champions will be waiting for him. Tom Vialle, Kay De Wolf, Tim Gajser, Guillem Farres, Romain Febvre, Andrea Adamo, Pauls Jonass, Maxime Renaux all have championships of their own, but all can create some drama for “The Bullet” in 2027. Can any of them beat him consistently enough, it hasn’t been seen yet, but youth will always learn and take their experiences from the past two years and be more ready.

For me though, a career long Herlings fan, I just don’t see it. I think Herlings will arrive even more ready than in 2026 and he won’t have that pesky Coenen to bother him. Herlings has always thrived on confidence and as we saw in the second half of 2026, with confidence, NOBODY can beat him.

A year older, a year more comfortable on the HRC factory machine, he might just have the perfect season. Wouldn’t that be something, a 32-year-old Jeffrey Herlings, some 16 years past his GP debut in 2010, and the favourite to win a seventh world championship.

Of course, the last to win a seventh world title was Antonio Cairoli in 2014, and before that it was Stefan Everts in 2003. The only two men in the sport to have done it and without question, Herlings deserves to also reach that goal.

We all know a rider like Herlings, or Jett Lawrence, or Cairoli, or Everts, or any of the all-time greats force riders to improve, make the gaps smaller and try and reach their own legendary status. So, while we all expect Herlings to win, we also know Vialle, De Wolf, Farres and others will be pushing that little bit harder and working overtime to try and get to “The Bullet”.

That in itself might be as exciting as the lead Herlings will control, because, one season isn’t going to get these guys to Herlings just yet, but as the season unfolds, anything is possible, and that is why we will all be watching in 2027.