Major honours
MV Agusta began as the motorcycle division of the aircraft maker Agusta after the war and built the longest dominance in premier-class history. John Surtees delivered the first 500cc title in 1956, and the marque then won the premier-class riders' title 17 straight years, from 1958 to 1974. Surtees, Gary Hocking, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read all became champions on the red machines, with Agostini alone winning seven in a row from 1966 to 1972. The strength was a transverse multi-cylinder engine: the three- and four-cylinder MVs made the British big single obsolete almost overnight and were often the only genuinely competitive machine on a thin grid. The decline came with a technical shift. Once lighter, more powerful two-strokes overtook four-strokes, MV Agusta withdrew from Grand Prix racing in 1976, and the brand has since changed hands repeatedly, surviving today as a premium sportbike marque based in Varese.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
In the 1950s, Gilera, the only other Italian four-cylinder camp, was MV's sole genuine rival, and when Gilera withdrew from Grand Prix racing after 1957, MV effectively inherited an empty throne. In the 1970s the two-strokes of Yamaha and Suzuki broke that dominance, delivered fittingly by Agostini himself after he had left MV.