Table of contents:
- Honda, 307 victories, 20 world championships | Marc Márquez
- Yamaha, 227 victories, 17 world championships | Valentino rossi
- MV Agusta, 139 victories, 16 world championships | Giacomo Agostini
- Suzuki, 94 victories, 6 world championships | Barry sheene
- Gilera, 35 victories, 6 world championships | Geoff duke
- Ducati, 49 victories, 1 world | Casey stoner
- Norton, 21 victories, 1 world | Geoff duke
- AJS, 5 victories, 1 world | Leslie graham
Video: These are the eight motorcycle brands that have ever won the MotoGP World Championship
2024 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-10 16:34
Throughout the history of the motorcycle world championship, many brands have tried to participate with more or less success in the premier class. Some have even won races, and others, the least, have come to proclaim themselves world champions, always hand in hand with great motorcycling legends.
We are going to review those great brands that have won the MotoGP world title, which are the most successful and who have been the great riders who have led them to final success in the world championship. These are the best brands in the history of MotoGP and their stories of overcoming and victories.
Honda, 307 victories, 20 world championships | Marc Márquez
Of course, the most successful brand in the history of the motorcycle world championship is Honda. The brand with the golden wing has already accumulated almost the same number of victories in MotoGP as in 500 cc. There are 151 races won in the last stage, by 156 achieved before the restructuring of the world championship. Total, Honda's 307 victories in the premier class.
And its most important rider is already Marc Márquez. Despite being only 27 years old, the Spanish rider has already won six MotoGP world championships with Honda, in addition to having achieved 56 victories. Cyclone Márquez has even devastated Mick Doohan, which dominated so much in the mid-90s that it seemed unbeatable.
Yes indeed, Doohan won five consecutive World Cups between 1994 and 1998, something that Márquez has not been able to do at the moment. Probably, his last chance to get it is this 2020, if there is a season at the end. Doohan won 54 races with Honda, two fewer than those led by Márquez, and those five world championships.
In addition to the two great giants, Honda has also raced great riders who have contributed to making the legend of the golden wing great. For instance Valentino Rossi, three times world champion before giving the scared to Yamaha. 'Il Dottore' won 33 races with Honda, two more than Dani Pedrosa, but with a very different translation in number of titles.
Two world championships won with Honda the first world champion in the history of the brand, Freddie Spencer, battling an Eddie Lawson who later ended up signing for the Japanese brand and also getting a 500 cc title with HRC. Wayne Gardner was the third different rider to win a premier class world championship with Honda in the 1980s.
Missing three great champions who rose to the other with Honda once. First Álex Crivillé, the first Spaniard to win in the premier class. His feat will always be written in the history of Spanish motorcycling. Already in the MotoGP era, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner also scored a world championship riding for Honda.
Yamaha, 227 victories, 17 world championships | Valentino rossi
Honda's victory in this battle of brands was not so evident until Márquez's arrival at the company. Until then, It was Yamaha who was in charge of the number of titles won in the premier class. 17 world-wide wound beholds the brand with the tuning forks with a total of 227 victories.
The most successful rider they have ever had is Valentino Rossi, but not by as much difference as might be expected. 'Il Dottore' won four titles dressed in blue, the double between 2004 and 2005 and another double between 2008 and 2009. The one in 2015 narrowly escaped him, but was well protected in the showcases of Yamaha.
And it is that behind Rossi it turns out that there are up to four more riders who have won three world championships with Yamaha. Jorge Lorenzo did it in 2010, 2012 and 2015, Wayne Rainey did it consecutively between 1990 and 1992, Eddie Lawson won the 1984, 1986 and 1988 titles before going to Honda and Kenny Roberts made a triplet between 1978 and 1980.
Yamaha is the brand of the great names, of the giants. Suffice it to add that, in addition to these five aces, there is only one more rider who has won the world championship with the brand of tuning forks. It was the legendary Giacomo Agostini in 1975, achieving what would be the first Yamaha title in the queen class and the last of the most successful rider ever.
By number of wins, Rossi rules. He does it with 56 wins, to 44 for Jorge Lorenzo. In any case, the two most contemporary drivers on the list take advantage of the fact that the number of races is much higher now. For example, Lawson stays at 26 wins, Rainey at 24 and Roberts at 22.
Along the way were the promising sports career of Jarno Saarinen, who died in Monza, and one of Randy Mamola's four runners-up, plus two by Max Biaggi. We will see what the future has in store for Yamaha with such a promising pair of riders as Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo.
MV Agusta, 139 victories, 16 world championships | Giacomo Agostini
MV Agusta is the first brand on the list that no longer runs in MotoGP, but still it is not the most laureate by little. In fact, at the beginning of this decade they remained as the brand that had the best record in the premier category of the world championship. 16 titles and 139 victories contemplate them from the beginning of the races.
Like Yamaha, MV Augusta has been a brand forged by great myths, but especially by one, Giacomo Agostini. The one who continues to be the most awarded rider in history won seven consecutive 500cc World Cups with MV Agusta. In that time he accumulated a total of 62 victories, the brand's record.
But he's not the only one. In fact the first champion of MV Agusta is John Surtees, who is also the only one to have won the motorcycle world championships and Formula 1. The Briton won four, the first in 1956, and then gave up the baton for Mike Hailwood to win another four. In between, Gary Hocking's title fell.
Total, MV Agusta spent 17 consecutive years winning the 500cc title. The last two were achieved by Phil Read. It had to be the great icon of the brand, Agostini, who cut the streak of what was once his home, getting his fifteenth title at the controls of a Yamaha in 1975. After that, MV Agusta never won again.
Suzuki, 94 victories, 6 world championships | Barry sheene
Suzuki is the first brand to have never mastered MotoGP. Those of Hamamatsu have six world titles and a rather peculiar historical situation. Because maybe the most remembered and iconic rider in Suzuki history is Kevin Schwantz, but the most successful is Barry Sheene.
The Briton won two consecutive World Cups with Suzuki in 1976 and 1977, being the only rider who has repeated wearing the brand's colors. Sheene actually has 18 racing wins, while Scwantz had 25. But the American's competition was greater and he could only win one title, the 1993 one.
In addition to these two, there are three other riders who have been premier class champions with Suzuki. It was achieved by Marco Lucchinelli and Franco Uncini consecutively in 1981 and 1982, and then also did it Kenny Roberts Jr in the delusional 2000 season, with many races in the rain. It is the last Suzuki title to date.
Thus, Suzuki has 94 victories, only the last four in the MotoGP category. It was Chris Vermeulen's in France in 2007, Maverick Viñales' at Silverstone in 2016 and both from Álex Rins last season. 2020 seemed like the year for Suzuki to fight for the title again, but the coronavirus has stopped everything.
Gilera, 35 victories, 6 world championships | Geoff duke
The oldest of all those on the list. Gilera won six 500cc titles, the same as Suzuki, but all in the decade of the 50. Specifically, in 1957 the success of Gilera stopped. The Italians won 35 races, fourteen of them at the hands of Geoff Duke, who was consecutive three-time world champion between 1953 and 1955.
Besides him, Umberto Masetti also triumphed with Gilera in 1950 and 1952, getting five victories, one more than Libero Liberati, who won the 1957 World Cup, which would ultimately be Gilera's last in the premier class of the World Cup. A brand with a short but intense career that has been in this top five for a while.
Ducati, 49 victories, 1 world | Casey stoner
There are now only three brands that have been champions of the premier class, and all have achieved it only once. The most famous Ducati, who despite all the technical revolution that his entry into MotoGP has meant both in the mechanical and aerodynamic section it has only been able to win one world championship to date.
Casey Stoner did it in 2007, and of course the Australian remains the great myth of Borgo Panigale history. Stoner won 23 races with Ducati, a brand that Andrea Dovizioso is gradually approaching, with thirteen wins. The Italian has three consecutive runners-up, but the only champion remains Stoner.
The third driver with the most victories with the Ducati is Loris Capirossi, who embarked on the project since the brand's debut back in 2003 and achieved seven wins dressed in red. Surprisingly, in fourth position it already appears a failed signing of the brand, such as Jorge Lorenzo, with three victories.
Once Troy Bayliss, Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci have won, but the truth is that Ducati is still looking for the pilot to take them to their second world championship, to enter the top five of MotoGP history. It's now 17 years in the premier class and the Stoner title is still very much alone in the showcase.
Norton, 21 victories, 1 world | Geoff duke
We have the first repeater pilot. Geoff Duke is the best pilot in the history of Gilera and also that of Norton. He won with the British brand the only world championship they achieved in 500cc, the one in 1951. In total, Duke won eight races for Norton before leaving to compete with Gilera, where he would win three more titles.
Norton continued competing for many years, until 1969, but that Duke title was left alone in the trophy case. A pile of names won races with Norton all that time: Reg Armstrong, Ray Amm and John Hartle, Harold Daniell, Ken Kavanagh, Mike Hailwood, Jack Ahearn, Phil Read, R. Creith and Godfrey Nash. But only one or two each.
AJS, 5 victories, 1 world | Leslie graham
AJS was the brand that won the first world championship in the history of 500 cc, and no more. The British company founded by Joe Stevens managed to win only five races, but they served to win the 1949 crown, the first in history. So they are the eighth most successful team in the world.
Leslie Graham was the winner of that title, although he only got three victories In his entire career as a World Championship rider, they were more than enough to seal his name in a preferential place in MotoGP history. In which it is reserved for the first champion of all time.
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