The MotoGP 2027 field will have multiple Moto2 graduates in it, almost certainly more than two, but there is no current expectation that the 2026 points leader will be among them.

Manu Gonzalez has been the standout rider in the Moto2 field through six rounds so far, the only rider able to run at or near the podium places week to week, as reflected by his 18.5-point lead.

He has 46.5 points over David Alonso and 55.5 points over Dani Holgado, the two Aspar riders who had been widely touted as the pre-season favourites - and who are believed to have agreements in place to join MotoGP with Honda and Gresini Ducati respectively.

Izan Guevara is thought to be the frontrunner for the remaining Pramac Yamaha MotoGP seat. Celestino Vietti is in the frame at VR46. Senna Agius has been rumoured to be in the mix too. That's five names in total potentially heading for the 2027 MotoGP grid - none of them being the points-leading Gonzalez.

"You can believe it or not, but the fact is that I am not speaking to anybody in MotoGP," his manager Eddy Rovelli told Speedweek.com before the most recent round at Barcelona.

In that same interview, Rovelli pointed to World Superbikes as Gonzalez's most viable route forward - and lamented a "shocking" lack of knowledge about the Moto2 field among the MotoGP managerial class.

An emphatic Gonzalez win at Barcelona might have changed something but there is no sign of that as of yet. In the meantime, he is known to be firmly on Honda's World Superbike radar - as reported by both GPOne and Speedweek.com, he would slot into the factory team as replacement for Somkiat Chantra (who would be moved to a separate entry).

This would be the financially secure choice. Alternatives - in a paddock where Gonzalez had already established himself in the lower classes before pivoting to Moto2 - appear to be BMW (if one of its two veterans leaves) or Ducati (if Nicolo Bulega gets his MotoGP move and nobody else swoops in).

But why not MotoGP, where Gonzalez has already had an encouraging toe-in-the-water test last year as injury stand-in for Ai Ogura at Trackhouse? Why, barring a change of heart from an entry like Tech3 KTM or Trackhouse, are his avenues closed off?

Rovelli is surely at least partly right that MotoGP team managers could take more interest in the intricacies of Moto2 rider performances. Many decisions on who to promote in recent years have come off as scattershot and spur-of-the-moment - though a lot of those ended up really, really working out.

But perhaps a lack of firm interest in Gonzalez is, in fact, a sign of a more systematic approach.

Gonzalez has clearly been the best rider in Moto2 so far this year and, if you value linear progression year-on-year by a rider in the intermediate category, his performances should delight you. He should, of course, already have been champion last year, but the eventual title collapse need not be a primary consideration in scouting a rider for MotoGP (else we would not have Ogura on the grid, would we?).

But there's a couple of minor 'red flags' for Gonzalez's MotoGP viability - though red flags only relative to his direct competition.

Of the riders in the top 11 in the standings in Moto2 right now, only Vietti has more Moto2 starts. Of those same riders, only Vietti and Alonso Lopez are older than 23-year-old Gonzalez.

Twenty-three is nothing but you can hardly fault MotoGP team bosses for wondering how much of a factor Gonzalez's extra experience is in his current edge over the likes of Alonso and Holgado, or fellow sophomores Ivan Ortola and Collin Veijer, or even closest title rival Guevara.

The same all applies to Vietti, but he has an established MotoGP structure relationship that might just get him over the line - otherwise he would have no chance.

And, of course, Gonzalez's Spanish passport already came up last year as a hindrance - and it is true that he would surely waltz onto the MotoGP grid with his current results were he from a more under-served market, but it's just part of the full puzzle.

Gonzalez himself had this to say about riders he's beating in Moto2 right now getting a MotoGP look-in over him: "Really, if I'm honest, I don't care. In the end, time puts you in the place you deserve - and I really think this, so I push myself every day.

"Even if the opportunity doesn't come, I will continue improving, and continue pushing - and if it doesn't come now, I will win the next race, or do what I have to do the next day. 

"Maybe it's something that can help you push...one step more, to show, 'If you don't want [me], look what I'm able to do'. But, as I said, I'm always at my 100%."

His current "100%" is MotoGP-worthy already. It would be very good to have Manu Gonzalez on the premier class grid in 2027; do not mistake anything written above as an argument to the contrary.

But if it doesn't come off, there would be a certain logic to it. The situation is not necessarily unjust - just unlucky.