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MotoGP is a prototype championship: every bike is a purpose-built racing machine that cannot be bought and has no road-going equivalent. Current MotoGP machines run 1,000cc four-cylinder engines producing well over 300 horsepower at a minimum weight of 157 kilograms. World Superbike, by contrast, uses heavily modified versions of motorcycles you can buy from a dealer, with regulations that limit how far they can be altered and balancing rules that equalise performance between manufacturers. MotoGP is faster and technically far more advanced, but Superbike racing is often closer because the machinery is more constrained. The two series have distinct rider markets, and moving between them is common in both directions.

Since 2023, every Grand Prix weekend has included a Sprint on Saturday afternoon, run over roughly half the Sunday race distance, typically 10 to 14 laps and around 20 minutes. It uses the same grid set by Saturday morning qualifying, and there is no separate session for it. Points go to the top nine finishers only: 12 for the win, then 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. The Sprint result does not change Sunday's grid, and riders are free to choose different tyres for each race, though the shorter distance pushes almost everyone onto softer compounds. A perfect weekend is worth 37 points.

Giacomo Agostini holds the record with 15 world championships, eight of them in the premier 500cc class and seven in the 350cc class, won between 1966 and 1975. In the premier class specifically, Agostini's eight titles lead Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, who have seven each. Mike Hailwood also won nine world championships across the 250cc, 350cc and 500cc classes. For race wins, Agostini leads all classes with 122, while Rossi holds the premier-class record with 89 victories from 2000 to 2017. Marquez passed Agostini's premier-class total of 68 during the 2025 season and now sits second behind Rossi.

The outright record is 368.6 km/h, set by Jorge Martin on an Aprilia RS-GP during practice at Mugello in May 2026, beating the 366.1 km/h Brad Binder recorded at the same circuit in 2023. Mugello's kilometre-long main straight makes it the usual venue for speed records, though Sepang, Phillip Island and Losail also produce numbers above 350 km/h. More impressive than the top speed is the deceleration: a MotoGP bike sheds more than 250 km/h in around four seconds and roughly 250 metres, generating over 1.5g through carbon brake discs that only work properly above about 250 degrees Celsius.

Four major things happen at once. Engine capacity drops from 1,000cc to 850cc with maximum bore reduced from 81mm to 75mm, and the engine allocation falls from seven to six per rider per season. Fuel capacity falls from 22 litres to 20 for a Grand Prix, and all fuel must be 100 percent non-fossil in origin, up from the 40 percent minimum in force since 2024. Aerodynamics are cut back, with narrower fairings and restricted rear devices, and ride-height and holeshot systems are banned outright. Finally, Pirelli replaces Michelin as sole tyre supplier after eleven seasons. The combined intent is slower, cheaper bikes that are easier to follow and overtake.

Hanging off the inside of the bike moves the combined centre of mass of rider and machine inwards, which means the motorcycle itself can stay more upright for a given cornering speed and keep a larger, safer contact patch on the tyre. Knee sliders came first, in the 1970s, as riders such as Kenny Roberts began moving their bodies off the seat. As tyres and chassis improved, lean angles increased past 60 degrees and the elbow started reaching the tarmac too, a style Marc Marquez normalised in the 2010s. The contact also provides feedback: a rider can feel exactly how far the bike is leaned and, in a front-end slide, sometimes use knee and elbow to prop the machine back up.