Marc Marquez
John Surtees
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Marc Marquez leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Marc Marquez at #3 and John Surtees at #11.
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The case for Marc Marquez
Nine world championships: 125cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and seven premier-class titles in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2025. He became the youngest premier champion at 20 years and 266 days, having already become the youngest premier-class winner at Austin aged 20 years and 63 days. In 2014 he won 13 of 18 races, still the single-season record. Through the end of 2025 he had 73 premier-class wins, second only to Rossi, 99 career wins and 126 premier podiums from 206 starts. The 2025 season was the most statistically dominant on record: 11 Grands Prix, 14 Sprints and 545 points, a total no rider had reached, in his first year with the factory Ducati. It came after five operations on his right arm, 30 races missed and 2,184 days between championships, which is the strongest single argument in his favour.
The case for John Surtees
Seven world championships in nine seasons of Grand Prix racing: the 500cc title in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960, and the 350cc title in 1958, 1959 and 1960, taking the double in each of those three years. He won 38 Grands Prix, 22 of them in the premier class, almost all on MV Agusta after starting with Norton. In 1958 and 1959 he was close to unbeatable in both classes he contested. He then walked away from motorcycles at 26 and moved to cars, winning the 1964 Formula 1 world championship with Ferrari, which makes him the only person to have won world titles on two and four wheels. That crossover, together with his later career as a constructor, gives him a place on any list even though his motorcycle career was short.