Francesco Bagnaia says the equipment parity on the MotoGP grid has made the sport more challenging for the factory top stars.
Officially, Aprilia, KTM, Honda and Yamaha all offer factory-spec bikes for their satellite teams. Ducati They gave that right to Gresini’s Alex Marquez and VR46’s Fabio Di Gianntonio.
Only Franco Morbidelli and Fermin Aldeguerre are riding older bikes this year, and even then their machines have previously won world championships.
Even in between Yamaha’s problems in ThailandThe gap between pole sitter Marco Bezecic and starter Toprak Razgatlioglu was just 1.5 seconds for the slowest full-time driver.
The entire MotoGP field is now covered by ‘eight tenths’, says Francesco Bagnaia
Speaking BSMT Podcast, according to Bagnaia, if all goes well, eight tenths of a pole separates the back row in modern MotoGP.
In the past this margin was close to three seconds, with ‘super factory bikes’ setting a standard that was simply out of reach for most of the field.
Now, if Bagnaya It’s inevitable that he’ll move into midfield for a bit of the game. The two-time MotoGP champion finished ninth in a difficult weekend at Buriram and finished outside the top six 15 times last season.
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“For me, the top 10 are amazing in the sense that they are the strongest in the world,” explained Bagnaia. “And from the first to the 15th, from the first to the last, there are seven, eight tenths, maybe you lose half a tenth in one corner, you’re last.
“It’s a very subtle difference, there was never a time when four riders on four super factory bikes were going fast, the others were a bit slower and the difference from start to finish was three seconds or two and a half seconds.
“Now seven, eight tenths makes all the difference.”
Forget about the ‘Fabulous Four’, this is the best MotoGP grid ever.
A senior team manager said last season. MotoGP is ‘stacked’ with talent.Although one of the oldest riders on the grid in Marc Marquez was dominant.
Only five of the 22 riders failed to win a premier-class race. One of them is Moto2 champion Diogo Moreira and the other is three-time WSBK title holder Razgatlioglu.
Who will be the next ‘Fantastic Four’?
Pedro Acosta, the most exciting talent in motorcycle racing at the moment, is also on the list. Ai Ogura won the 2024 Intermediate title and Luca Marini has two poles and two podiums to his name.
Marquez may be the only member of the ‘Fabulous Four’ still racing, but in terms of depth, the MotoGP grid is arguably stronger than ever.
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