Grand Prix Motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits and is sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The foundation of the FIM as the international governing body for motorcycle sport in 1949 provided an opportunity to coordinate rules and regulations in order to select events that would count towards official World Championships. It is the oldest established motorsport World Championship.

Grand Prix motorcycles are purpose-built machines that are unavailable for purchase to the general public and are unable to be ridden legally on public roads. This separates this form of Championship from the various production-based categories of racing, such as Superbike World Championship and the Isle of Man TT Races as they use modified versions of road-going motorcycles available to the general public.

The top-division of racing was formerly known as 500cc, before rebranding as MotoGP from 2002, which is regarded as the official “World Championship – although all sub-classes have the official status as well.

The most successful rider in Grand Prix history is Giacomo Agostini with 15 titles and 122 race wins. In regards to MotoGP as the “top-flight” series, Agostini holds the record for most titles at eight, followed by Valentino Rossi with seven and active rider Marc Marquez with six. 

Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM)

The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) is a global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing, representing 121 national motorcycle federations that are divided between six continental unions.

There are seven motorcycle-racing disciplines that FIM covers – governing 82 World Championships as well as hundreds of secondary Championships – including: endura, trial, circuit racing, motocross and supermoto, cross-country, e-bike, and track racing.

History

In 1949, the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) organised a FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix. Whilst the FIM remains as the sport sanctioning body, the commercial rights were signed over to Dorna Sports. Teams competing in the Championship are represented by the International Road Racing Teams Association (IRTA) and manufacturers by the Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association (MSMA). These four entities compose the Grand Prix Commision, which decide the rules and changes to regulations between themselves, with Dorna holding the power to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Traditionally, there have been several races at each event for various classes of motorcycles, based on engine size, and one class for sidecars. These classes included 50cc, 80cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 500cc, and 750cc solo machines, and 350cc and 500cc sidecars. Throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s, all classes were dominated by four-stroke engines, until advances in engine design and technology saw the emergence of two-stroke engines in the smaller classes.

In 1969, the FIM announced new rules that restricted all classes to use bikes with only six gears and (most) to only two cylinders (four were allowed in the case of the 350cc and 500cc categories). They attributed their decision to high development costs for those non-works teams, as the previous rules allowed the use of multiple cylinders – as smaller pistons could produce higher revs – and the use of multiple gears.

This decision led to a mass walk-out of manufacturers from the sport, including the previously highly successful Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha, leaving only MV Agusta as effectively the only works team left in the sport until Yamaha and Suzuki returned with new two-stroke designs in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Honda also returned to Grand Prix racing in 1979, originally attempting to compete in the top class with a four-stroke engine, however, this failed and they eventually conformed.

In 2002, rule changes were implemented to help with the phasing out of the 500cc two-strokes and the premier class of racing was rebranded as MotoGP.

MotoGP

At the beginning of the new MotoGP era of racing in 2002, 500cc two-stroke or 990cc four-stroke bikes were both permitted to be used to race. The power advantage of the four-stroke engine over the half the size two-stroke meant that by the following season, no two-stroke bikes were on the grid.

Early on in this new era of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, the FIM became concerned about the increased dangers as a result of the advances in design and engineering that had resulted in higher speeds around the race track. Therefore, they implemented regulation changes to the weight of the bikes (increased by 3kg), amount of available fuel (from 26 litres to 21 litres) and the capacity of the engines (from 990cc to 800cc).

On the 11th of December 2009, the Grand Prix Commission announced that the MotoGP class would switch to the 1000cc motor limit starting in the 2012 season. The projected changes seemed to be favourably received by the teams.

Also from the 2012 season, teams that were not entered by one of the main manufacturers could seek a “Claiming Rule Team” (CRT) status. This Claiming Rule Team status was introduced to allow independent teams to be competitive at a lower cost and increase the number of entries in MotoGP. These teams also benefited from less restrictive rules on the number of engines that could be used in a season, and with larger fuel allowances during the races. From the 2014 season, the CRT class was dropped in favour of an “Open Class” specification – allowing the teams using the control ECU hardware and software certain benefits to increase their.competitiveness.

From 2023, front ride height devices were banned. These were common in MotoGP since 2018, when Ducati first introduced a system that would allow the rear of the bike to be lowered to help with acceleration off the line for race starts.

Champions: 

Rider	Title	Seasons
Giacomo Agostini	8	1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1975
Valentino Rossi	7	2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009
Marc Marquez	6	2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Mick Doohan	5	1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Mike Hailwood	4	1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
Jorge Lorenzo	3	2010, 2012, 2015
Francesco Bagnaia	2	2022, 2023
Joan Mir	1	2020
Fabio Quartararo	1	2021
Jorge Martin	1	2024

Drivers in bold are currently competing in the Championship

Moto2

Moto2 was initially a 600cc four-stroke class introduced in 2010 to replace the traditional 250cc two-stroke class. The engines were supplied exclusively by Honda, tyres by Dunlop and the electronics were limited and supplied only by FIM-sanctioned producers. Carbon brake discs are banned in this category, with only steel brake discs being allowed.

In 2019, Triumph replaced Honda as the sole supplier of Moto2 engines, increasing the bikes engine to 765cc. Pirelli became the sole tyre supplier in Moto2 and Moto3, replacing Dunlop in 2024.

Champions:

Season	Champion	Constructor	Points
2015	Johann Zarco	Kalex	352
2016	Johann Zarco	Kalex	276
2017	Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	308
2018	Francesco Bagnaia	Kalex	306
2019	Alex Marquez	Kalex	262
2020	Enea Bastianini	Kalex	205
2021	Remy Gardner	Kalex	311
2022	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	271.5
2023	Pedro Acosta	Kalex	332.5
2024	Ai Ogura	Boscoscuro	274

Moto3

The 125cc class was replaced in 2012 by the Moto3 class. This class of racing is restricted to the use of a single-cylinder 250cc four-stroke engine. The minimum total weight for motorcycle and rider is 148kg.

Traditionally, the age limits for Moto3 were between 16 and 28 years, with an upper limit of 25 for newly contracted riders participating for the first time and wild-card entries.in 2014, the rules were changed to allow the under-age FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 (Junior) Champions to participate in the subsequent Moto3 series at the World Championship level. The first rider to benefit as a result of this rule was double CEV Champion Fabio Quartararo (2013 and 2014 Champion). However, after a series of incidents involving the fatalities of young riders in the lower classes, the FIM reinstated a minimum age of 18 starting from the commencement of the 2023 season.

Champions:

Season	Champion	Constructor	Points
2015	Danny Kent	Honda	260
2016	Brad Binder	KTM	319
2017	Joan Mir	Honda	341
2018	Jorge Martin	Honda	260
2019	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Honda	279
2020	Albert Arenas	KTM	174
2021	Pedro Acosta	KTM	259
2022	Izan Guevara	Gas Gas	319
2023	Jaume Masia	Honda	274
2024	David Alonso	CFMoto	421