The 2024 MotoGP season kicks off in Qatar this weekend, so we’re taking a fast break from our common programming for our annual critique of this yr’s MotoGP race bike liveries.
MotoGP is the head of bike racing, producing race bikes with mind-boggling ranges of engineering. As a lot as we love customized bikes and classics right here at Bike EXIF, we are able to simply as simply spend hours poring over the small print of a well-tuned racing machine.
Engineering solely tells a part of the story although. As soon as a race bike is constructed, it’s as much as the staff’s designers to make it look good—whereas holding the staff’s sponsors joyful. A great MotoGP livery is arresting and memorable, and will look simply pretty much as good going 200-plus miles per hour because it does parked within the winner’s circle.
We’ve ranked this yr’s MotoGP race bike liveries from worst to finest, together with solely groups that run a single livery for each riders (sorry, LCR Honda). This yr’s crop has hits and misses in equal measure—so have a look, and hold forth within the feedback in the event you disagree.
10. Trackhouse Racing Trackhouse Racing is the one group on the earth to personal each a NASCAR and a MotoGP staff, they usually need you to realize it. Once they took over the defunct CryptoDATA RNF staff on the finish of final yr, they broke the information with a pair of Stars and Stripes-themed Aprilia race bikes. On the time, I assumed they have been trolling us—however, because it seems, they weren’t.
Spare a thought for Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, who have to spend the yr racing these bikes with straight faces.
9. Yamaha Manufacturing unit Racing Lengthy earlier than power drinks took over from tobacco firms as the first sponsors of motorsport, Yamaha boasted a number of the most iconic liveries in racing. The Japanese powerhouse’s Marlboro and Camel eras are remembered fondly—and even their newer Fila and Movistar liveries have been pure eye sweet. Not a lot for his or her present graphics.
For 2024, Yamaha Manufacturing unit Racing’s Aldo Drudi-designed ‘camo’ livery persists for one more yr. And, like most camo-based designs, it isn’t getting older effectively. The Yamaha mixture of gloss blue and gloss black will at all times look sharp—however perhaps subsequent yr they’ll commerce the jagged camo-inspired graphics for one thing rather less passé.
8. Pink Bull GASGAS Tech3 It’s GASGAS’ second yr in MotoGP as a model, they usually’ve marked it with a livery that’s marginally extra attention-grabbing than the plain pink paint job they sported final yr. The GASGAS emblem nonetheless dominates the aspect of the bike, however the all-red scheme is now punctuated by a contemporary hit of branding from new sponsor Pink Bull.
It appears to be like satisfactory for what it’s—a huge branding train. GASGAS’ manufacturing unit sponsorship of the enduring Tech3 staff is absolutely only a manner for KTM (GASGAS’ mother or father firm) to run a second pair of bikes whereas getting GASGAS’ title on the market. On the plus aspect, it’s one of many least cluttered liveries on the grid this yr.
7. Ducati Lenovo Pecco Bagnaia’s 2023 marketing campaign culminated in him being the primary MotoGP racer to win back-to-back championships with the #1 plate, since Mick Doohan did it in 1998. Operating that #1 plate for the second yr in a row, the Italian rider’s trying to make it a hat trick.
As for the Ducati he’s piloting, that’s wearing the identical all-red colour scheme that Ducati has run since endlessly. You’ll be able to’t blame the Italian manufacturing unit for sticking to a glance that has undoubtedly change into iconic in its personal proper, however it will have regarded rather a lot higher with out the dashed vibrant pink strains that run throughout its fairings.
Ducati purportedly added that motif to its MotoGP bike (and all of its different racing bikes, together with its new motocross contender) to indicate the curves of a race monitor. However the extra seemingly story is {that a} designer got here up with it, and a advertising government put a press release-worthy spin on it. Both manner, it appears like an afterthought.
6. Pertamina Enduro VR46 Recent sponsorship means an all-new livery for the Valentino Rossi-owned Pertamina Enduro VR46 staff. Rossi’s unmistakable signature yellow covers the nostril finish, fading right into a white rear half that’s reduce by a pink sponsor stripe. It’s both probably the most good, or the laziest, livery on the grid, relying in your perspective.
There are shades of the legendary Brawn GP Components One automobile right here, and the bike is actually straightforward to identify on the monitor. However it’s additionally slightly garish, with an excessive amount of occurring to make it actually stand out. Both manner, it’s a marked step again from the swish Mooneys-sponsored livery that the VR46 staff ran with final yr.
5. Pink Bull KTM Manufacturing unit Racing Subsequent to Ducati, Pink Bull KTM is the least prone to make any important adjustments to their livery yr on yr. And I’m completely tremendous with that.
The KTM RC16 is drop-dead attractive in its conventional Pink Bull colours. The everyday matte midnight blue base appears to be like prefer it was made for a MotoGP bike, and the Pink Bull and KTM logos share high billing with out competing for house.
The KTM RC16 look isn’t going to alter any time quickly, as a result of it doesn’t have to. Like its Components One counterpart, it’s effectively on its solution to changing into a modern-day racing icon.
It additionally helps that the RC16 appears to be like quick as heck standing nonetheless—and even sooner when Brad Binder and Jack Miller trip it with the type of reckless abandon that you just’d anticipate from a South African and an Australian.
4. Prima Pramac Racing With a minimum of 4 groups operating Ducati equipment, it’s exhausting to face out. Prima Pramac’s 2023 scheme was my favourite design of the yr; an eye-popping livery that put the staff’s bike a reduce above its counterparts.
Prima Pramac has doubled down on the pink and purple hues from final yr’s design however has ditched the white base in favor of slivers of black. The graphics are toned down too, providing a much less frenetic vibe than its predecessor.
It really works… principally. Whereas the heavier tackle Prima Pramac’s colours lacks the contemporary really feel of final yr’s white-based paint scheme, it’s nonetheless a courageous livery when you think about the quantity of purple it options. It additionally comes collectively properly with a rider onboard, since most of the graphics are carried by way of to the rider’s leathers.
3. Repsol Honda Repsol and Honda rejoice three a long time collectively in MotoGP this yr. It’s the longest-standing partnership in two-wheeled motorsports, and has yielded 15 World Championship titles from six World Champions, 183 premier class wins, and 455 podiums. It’s additionally given the game a few of its most memorable bike designs.
Repsol and Honda’s partnership is altering although, and that’s mirrored within the RC213V’s 2024 livery. The Repsol emblem is not the centerpiece of the design, taking second billing subsequent to Honda’s branding. However the general design is not any much less impactful.
The brand new design nonetheless options splashes of Repsol’s orange and pink, however provides a dominant navy part that provides the bike an all-business vibe. And the black bits you see aren’t simply flat black both—they’re coated in a ghosted checkered sample, set towards corresponding carbon fiber bits.
The brilliant orange wheels from Honda’s 2023 contender wouldn’t go amiss, however I’m nitpicking right here.
2. Gresini Racing I ranked Gresini’s ultra-fresh Pantone 2122 blue livery third final yr, however it deserves extra recognition. Few designs on the grid this yr (or in recent times, in actual fact), are fairly as effectively put collectively as this.
Gresini’s 2024 livery is a continuation of final yr’s aesthetic, with a couple of well-judged tweaks. There’s slightly extra visible motion within the pink stripes which are set towards the powder blue, and there’s been a modest reshuffle of the sponsor logos.
It’s one other design that pairs effectively with the rider’s leathers, and it nonetheless options the identical neat little touches it did earlier than, like a touch of white on the within of the fairing’s aero wings. It’s additionally the best-looking Ducati on this yr’s line-up.
It appears to be like so good that I may nearly forgive Gresini for ditching Fabio Di Giannantonio in favor of Marc Marquez for this season. Virtually.
1. Aprilia Racing In uncooked type, the Aprilia RS-GP is among the best-looking bikes within the MotoGP paddock. However, as Trackhouse Racing has confirmed, its livery could make or break it.
Aprilia’s manufacturing unit staff has caught to their tried-and-true colour palette of black, pink, and purple, however they’ve sharpened up the graphics and altered the stability of pink to purple for 2024. These adjustments have created probably the most cohesive, and hottest, livery on this yr’s MotoGP grid.
The genius is within the particulars. Jagged graphics on the entrance fender and brake cooling ducts flit between purple and pink, with the purple bit tracing a line to the again of the bike. The division of white and pink on the Aprilia emblem emblazoned throughout the fairing is echoed completely on the bike’s nostril wing, whereas the mismatched wheels serve the bike’s forward-biased visible.
At a look, it’s straightforward to jot down it off as a matte black race bike with a couple of kinetic graphics. However get nearer, and it reveals itself as a superb piece of graphic design.
Picture sources: MotoGP.com, Ducati Press, KTM Press, Aprilia Press
