Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia says the equalisation of equipment across the MotoGP grid has made the sport much more challenging for factory superstars.
Officially, Aprilia, KTM, Honda and Yamaha all supply factory-spec bikes to their satellite teams. Ducati have granted that privilege to Gresini’s Alex Marquez and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Only Franco Morbidelli and Fermin Aldeguer are riding old bikes this year, and even then their machinery has previously won world championships.
Even amid Yamaha’s woes in Thailand, the gap between polesitter Marco Bezzecchi and debutant Toprak Razgatlioglu, the slowest full-time rider, was only 1.5 seconds.
Francesco Bagnaia says the entire MotoGP field is now covered by ‘eight tenths’
Speaking on The BSMT podcast, Bagnaia said that, all being well, only eight-tenths separate pole from the back row in modern MotoGP.
In the past, this margin was closer to three seconds, with the ‘super factory bikes’ setting a standard that most of the field simply couldn’t reach.
Now, if Bagnaia is even slightly off his game, he will inevitably drop into the midfield. The two-time MotoGP champion finished ninth on a difficult weekend in Buriram and last season, he finished outside the top six 15 times.
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“For me, the top 10 are all incredible in the sense that they are the strongest in the world,” Bagnaia explained. “And so, from first to 15th, from first to last, there are seven, eight-tenths. Maybe you lose half a tenth per corner, you’re last.
“It’s such a subtle difference. It’s no longer like once upon a time when there were four riders going very fast with four super factory bikes, the others went a little slower and the difference from first to last was three seconds or two and a half seconds.
“Now seven, eight tenths makes all the difference.”
Forget about the ‘fantastic four’, this is the best MotoGP grid ever
One top team manager said last season that MotoGP is ‘stacked’ with talent, even if one of the oldest riders on the grid in Marc Marquez was dominating.
Only five out of 22 riders have failed to win a premier-class race. One of those is Moto2 champion Diogo Moreira, while another is three-time WSBK title-winner Razgatlioglu.
Who will be the next ‘Fantastic Four’?
Pedro Acosta, arguably the most exciting talent in motorcycle racing right now, is also on the list. Ai Ogura won the 2024 intermediate class title and Luca Marini has two poles and two podiums to his name.
Marquez may be the only member of the ‘fantastic four’ still racing, but in terms of depth, the MotoGP grid is arguably stronger than ever.
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