Four odd facts about the 2023 MotoGP season

Bagnaia went on to win the race at Valencia, as well as the title, but only after more drama, including Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Jack Miller crashing out of the lead ahead of Bagnaia. And while there's nothing particularly novel about a champion successfully defending a title — the same happened this year in the two other roadracing series we occassionally cover here at Common Tread, with Álvaro Bautista repeating in World Superbike and Jake Gagne winning again in MotoAmerica Superbike — the 2023 MotoGP season did serve up some oddities along the way. Here are a few of them.

No back-to-back race winners in 2023

We may have had a repeat champion, but the racing during the season had a lot more ups and downs. Looking at the Sunday full-length races and not including the shorter, Saturday sprint races added this year, eight different riders won races and no rider won two consecutive races. Bagnaia had the most Sunday wins, with seven, but he was never able to win two rounds in a row. And neither did anyone else, just the first time that has happened in the premier class since the very first grand prix season in 1949, which consisted of just six races.

First back-to-back championships for Ducati

With Ducati riders taking four of the top five and six of the top 10 spots in the final standings for the season, Ducati's current dominance in the series is obvious. Which makes it easy to forget how recently it was that Ducati was the place riders went to destroy their careers. Former world champions from Nicky Hayden to Jorge Lorenzo to Valentino Rossi went to Ducati and were unable to win. It was Rossi's lack of success that forced Ducati executives to recognize they had a problem with the motorcycle, not a problem with the rider, and it was also Rossi's winless streak that meant that Bagnaia became the first Italian rider to win on a Ducati.

The turnaround has been dramatic, however, and Bagnaia's 2022 and 2023 titles cap the performance. Before the last two years, Ducati's only rider's title was Casey Stoner's 2007 championship. And he soon left the brand for a better ride. A Ducati is now the most coveted ride in MotoGP, with even Márquez leaving Honda for the Gresini Ducati team in 2024, but not long ago, it was just the opposite.

Longest season, lots of attrition

With 20 rounds (it was supposed to be 21, but the race in Kazakhstan was canceled) and the addition of Saturday sprint races, 2023 was easily the longest MotoGP season ever. It was also particularly grueling, especially at the end. The last six races took place in a span of seven weeks on three continents.

The resulting attrition shouldn't be a surprise. One of the distinctions of the 2023 season was that at least one of the regular riders — and often, multiple riders — was missing at every single round.

Italians, Americans, repeats

Since the series began in 1949, Bagnaia became the 13th racer to win the premier class in world championship roadracing at least two consecutive years. What may be surprising to younger fans of the sport, who are used to Spanish and Italian riders dominating the grid while American riders are totally absent, is that Bagnaia is just the third Italian rider to repeat, and the same number of American racers have repeated as champions. Of course the two Italians who repeated before Bagnaia are the two most likely to be nominated as the GOAT — greatest of all time — Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini.

Can you name the three American riders? Even if you weren't around at the time they won?

And are you interested in what surprises 2024 will bring?