Alex Hofmann

Alexander Hofmann (born 25 May 1980) is a retired Grand Prix motorcycle racer, who now works on German television coverage of the sport. He is nicknamed 'the Hoff' in English-speaking countries, a nod to David Hasselhoff.

Early years Hofmann successfully raced in Motocross in his early teens, before entering the German 125cc championship for the first time in 1995, and the European series alongside it a year later. In 1997, he was runner-up in the German series, and also started the German 125cc World Championship race as a wild card.

In 1998, Hofmann moved up to 250cc, winning every race in the German championship and also winning the European title, as well as coming tenth in a one-off in the 250cc World Championship. He was the first German to achieve both titles in his first season in the 250 cc class. Inspired by his childhood idol Loris Capirossi, he started with starting number 66. From 1999 to 2001, Hofmann was a regular in this series, although without taking a podium finish, and missing eight races in 2000 due to injury.

MotoGP Hofmann started 2002 without a ride, but made his MotoGP debut as a stand-in rider for Garry McCoy at the WCM Red Bull team, also filling in for Loris Capirossi for Sito Pons' team. He was hired to be Kawasaki's test rider role in 2003. In two starts, he scored points both times. He and Shinya Nakano replaced McCoy and Andrew Pitt as full-time racers in 2004. The next two years were difficult, mainly due to injuries, partly through his love of Motocross. Points were rare and Kawasaki chose Randy de Puniet for 2006 over Hofmann.

In 2006, Hofmann joined the D'Antin Pramac team, riding on a 2006 customer version of the works Ducati alongside José Luis Cardoso. When their factory rider Sete Gibernau was injured at the Circuit de Catalunya (a race in which Hofmann finished eighth, helped by three riders not starting the resumption of the race), Hofmann was appointed as his replacement for the next two races, before returning to D'Antin for his home race at Sachsenring, dropping out early.

In 2007, Hofmann remained with D'Antin, alongside the veteran Alex Barros. Fifth place at Le Mans took him to tenth in the championship after five rounds, ahead of reigning champion Nicky Hayden. He was a strong eighth at Assen. Preparation for his home round at the Sachsenring were hampered by a hand injury suffered when a friend closed a car door onto it, but he scored minor points in the race. He injured his hand in practice at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. He was replaced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca by Chaz Davies and by Iván Silva at Brno. He returned to racing at Misano but he was fired by the team following the Portuguese Grand Prix, after pulling out of the race while in with a chance of scoring points, due to a lack of motivation, in what would be his final World Championship start.

Personal life Hofmann's girlfriend is called Romina Rados. He loves action sports such as skiing and BMX bikes. At 1.80m, he is tall for a motorcycle racer. His favourite food is Italian. He has a two children, a son called Travis (b. 2010) and a daughter called Sienna (b. 2014).

Hofmann is fluent in German, English, French, Spanish and Italian.

After his racing career, Hofmann started working as MotoGP co-commentator alongside German commentator for the German TV station Sport1 in 2009, where his knowledge from his own racing career and multilingualism prove helpful as a pit and grid reporter. He remained there until the end of 2014 when Eurosport acquired the rights for the MotoGP for the 2015 season. Alex Hofmann also switched to Eurosport and also worked there as a pit lane reporter. In the spring of the following year, he left the channel, citing technical and personnel setbacks in his reporting.

When there was no place available for Hofmann on a MotoGP bike in the 2008 season, Aprilia hired Hofmann as a development and test rider for the new RSV4 superbike. If his performance was sufficient, it was planned that he would start as an Aprilia factory rider in the Superbike World Championship from 2009. However, this hope was dashed when Shinya Nakano, who had switched from the MotoGP class to the Superbike World Championship, received a contract with Aprilia and started for the Italians alongside Max Biaggi in 2009. The German remained a test rider for the manufacturer from Noale. After his contract expired, he moved to KTM in 2015 to help prepare the company's entry into MotoGP in 2017 as a test rider.

Since 2016, Hofmann has worked for the Austrian TV station ServusTV as a racing expert and co-commentates alongside Austrian commentator Christian Brugger at the Motorcycle World Championship races. The Broadcast were available to the German audience again so the Team at ServusTV became a mixture of Austrian and German personnel. Due to his foreign language skills, he is often deployed in the starting grid and interviews the riders immediately before the start. Stefan Bradl serves as Hofmann's additional co-commentator and stand-in. Occasionally fellow GP ex-riders Thomas Lüthi and Sandro Cortese also appear on segments, sometimes due to their involvement in the paddock or replacement expert when Bradl did race and test for HRC and KTM. After the Covid Pandemic ServusTV announced withdrawal to broadcast their frequencies to Germany, focusing solely on the Austrian market. Ultimately a subsidiary station was formed as DF1 that inherited the rights was formed just in time before the subsequent season with the whole cast and crew retained.

Hofmann has also occasionally been called in for during Formula 1 broadcasts on the German TV channel RTL. Furthermore Alex joined RTL2, RTL Nitro and Sport1 for the 24h Nürburgring Endurance Events in recent years, after his active rider career ended in the late 2010s. In 2016 he was among those broadcasting members who gained a world record as the longest continuous sports broadcast at a length at over 25 hours and 50 minutes. The following him and the broadcasting team expanded the duration of that record to 26 hours and 20 minutes. His knowledge and linguistical versatility helped him to establish a strong recurring role in motorsport coverage.

Career statistics

By season SeasClassMotoTeam 1997 125cc Yamaha TZ125 Castor Kapital Racing 1 0 0 0 0 2 28th 1998 250cc Honda NSR250 Racing Factory 1 0 0 0 0 6 29th 1999 250cc Honda NSR250 Racing Factory 16 0 0 0 0 51 16th 2000 250cc Aprilia RSV 250 Racing Factory 9 0 0 0 0 12 25th 2001 250cc Aprilia RSV 250 Racing Factory 15 0 0 0 0 55 12th 2002 MotoGP Yamaha YZR500 Red Bull Yamaha WCM 2 0 0 0 0 11 22nd Honda NSR500 West Honda Pons 2 0 0 0 0 2003 MotoGP Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR Kawasaki Racing Team 5 0 0 0 0 8 23rd 2004 MotoGP Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR Kawasaki Racing Team 16 0 0 0 0 51 15th 2005 MotoGP Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR Kawasaki Racing Team 10 0 0 0 0 24 19th 2006 MotoGP Ducati Desmosedici GP5 Pramac d'Antin 14 0 0 0 0 30 17th Ducati Desmosedici GP6 Ducati Marlboro Team 3 2007 MotoGP Ducati Desmosedici GP7 Pramac d'Antin 12 0 0 0 0 65 13th Total 106 0 0 0 0 315

By class

Races by year (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1997 125cc Yamaha MAL JPN SPA ITA AUT FRA NED IMO GER14 BRA GBR CZE CAT IND AUS 28th 2 1998 250cc Honda JPN MAL SPA ITA FRA MAD NED GBR GER10 CZE IMO CAT AUS ARG 29th 6 1999 250cc TSR-Honda MAL17 JPN18 SPA15 FRA8 ITA16 CAT11 NED11 GBR13 GER9 CZERet IMO17 VAL10 AUS13 RSA13 BRA12 ARG10 16th 51 2000 250cc Aprilia RSARet MAL10 JPN15 SPA17 FRA18 ITARet CAT NED GBR GER CZE 19 POR 11 VAL 18 BRA DNS PAC AUS 25th 12 2001 250cc Aprilia JPN12 RSA10 SPA11 FRA11 ITA18 CAT9 NED12 GBR9 GER7 CZERet PORRet VALRet PAC17 AUSRet MAL8 BRA17 12th 55 2002 MotoGP Yamaha JPN RSA SPA FRA ITA CATRet NED11 22nd 11 Honda GBR17 GER10 CZE POR BRA PAC MAL AUS VAL 2003 MotoGP Kawasaki JPN RSA SPA16 FRA ITA14 CAT NED10 GBR GER17 CZE19 POR BRA PAC MAL AUS VAL 23rd 8 2004 MotoGP Kawasaki RSARet SPA13 FRARet ITA14 CAT11 NED13 BRA11 GER10 GBR19 CZE13 POR13 JPN10 QAT9 MALRet AUS13 VAL11 15th 51 2005 MotoGP Kawasaki SPA11 POR CHN FRA ITA12 CAT17 NEDRet USA12 GBR8 GERRet CZE15 JPNRet MAL QAT AUS TUR VAL14 19th 24 2006 MotoGP Ducati SPA15 QAT15 TUR16 CHN15 FRA13 ITARet CAT10 NED12 GBR13 GERRet USA14 CZE16 MAL15 AUS13 JPN16 POR11 VALRet 17th 30 2007 MotoGP Ducati QAT11 SPADSQ CHN9 TUR9 FRA5 ITA11 CAT13 GBR9 NED8 GER9 USADNS CZE RSM11 PORRet JPN AUS MAL VAL 13th 65

Superbike World Championship

Races by year Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 2002 Kawasaki SPA SPA AUS AUS RSA RSA JPN JPN ITA ITA GBR GBR GER13 GER15 SMR SMR USA USA GBR GBR GER GER NED NED ITA ITA 34th 4