At Mugello Jorge Martin set the new MotoGP speed record, 363.6 km / h riding the Ducati of the Pramac team. Since the days of Capirossi and Bayliss, the Bolognese red is one of the references in terms of raw power and maximum speed, together with the Honda
Manuele Cecconi
30 May
True, pure speed is not enough to win MotoGP races: Loris Capirossi and the other Ducati riders know this well who, in the first half of the 2000s, often found themselves “arguing” with the extremely powerful Desmosedici, a bike capable of smash every record at the speed trap but very difficult to take to the limit when the curves came. What is certain is that, when you have 1,141 meters of straight road in front of you where you can unload them, the horses are a great convenience, especially if in the meantime the Desmosedici has also turned into a tractable and complete motorcycle, discarding the role of the crazy horse tamed in the best possible way. best from Capirex and Bayliss. And it is precisely on the ultra-mileage straight at Mugello that, during the Italian Grand Prix just held, Ducati set a new absolute top speed record, a good 363.6 km / h recorded by Jorge Martin on the Pramac team’s red.
motogp, the beginnings of the 4-stroke
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If the figure is not impressive enough in itself, consider that we are talking about 40 km / h (yes, forty!) More than the record set twenty years ago, on the same track, by the Japanese Toru Ukawa. The year was 2002, the debut season of the four-stroke MotoGP, the bike was the RC211V, the Honda five-cylinder that would dominate the 990 era. team HRC scored a peak of 324.5 km / h: a speed much higher than that of the old two-stroke 500s, but which now – in 2022 – is perfectly within the reach of the most performing road hypersports. Not on a high-speed loop or on a salt lake, but there, on the same track, in the same point, before the San Donato. Wonders of technological evolution.
motogp, honda-ducati duel
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It was at the beginning of a cycle, that of the four strokes, and the margins for improvement were very wide. After a couple of seasons and the new engines made an impressive leap in terms of cavalry, making MotoGPs real monsters of power, barely tamed by electronics that were still rudimentary, at least by today’s standards. Thus the “walls” of 230, 240, 250 hp are demolished one by one, at the end of the 990 “era” someone even goes so far as to talk about peaks of 270 hp, even if obviously there are no official data. In addition to the aforementioned Ducati, the unfortunate Aprilia RS Cube and the aforementioned Honda seem to be among the best performing bikes of that period in terms of pure power, which in fact recorded 343 km / h in 2004 with Alex Barros in the saddle. From then on, for many years to come, the top speed will be practically an internal affair between Tokyo and Borgo Panigale.
the 800, to give yourself a limit
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Also for the Brazilian’s record the theater is always Mugello, one of the tracks where, thanks to the long straight and the already high speed of the Bucine, the highest points are reached. Other circuits where MotoGPs put the “velox” to the test are Montmelò in Barcelona, and Losail, in Qatar. But the “Bonneville” of the World Championship is almost always the Tuscan track, even if since 2007 we have witnessed a freezing of records: the powers drop and the speeds go hand in hand. The new 800s have arrived, whose task is – at least initially, in the intentions of FIM and Dorna – precisely to take a step back in terms of pure performance. It doesn’t last long, to tell the truth, and in fact already in 2009, in the third season with the new displacement, Dani Pedrosa plants an impressive 349.3 km / h at the Mugello at the controls of the official Honda RC212V. If the will was to give oneself … a regulation, the cut of cubic centimeters did not help much, and it is no coincidence that from 2012 it goes back to climbing up to the canonical liter of displacement.
motogp over 350 times
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Honda calls, Ducati replies: after a few years of stagnation, in 2014 Andrea Iannone retouches the Mugello record, “shooting himself” with the 1000 cc Desmosedici at 349.6 km / h. However, Marc Marquez, with the RC213V, takes the pleasure of reaching 350 meters, scoring 350.5 km / h at the end of the Losail straight, as the Qatar track was still called at the time. From that moment on, there was an authentic escalation, also thanks to an aerodynamic research that is becoming more and more refined. Wings, winglets and hulls studied in every detail allow you to come out of curves strongly and keep the front end down in acceleration, to the benefit of the response of the speed trap. From 2015 to 2019, the pre-pandemic season, we continuously improve, edition after edition, moving the bar higher and higher: the most important steps are still taken by Ducati at Mugello, first with Iannone (354.9 km / h in 2016) and then with Dovizioso (356.5 in 2018, 356.7 in 2019).
the motogp and the goal 360
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Now even the 360s are there, within reach of the right knob. In 2020, due to Covid-19, MotoGP did not race either in Qatar or at Mugello, the two top events for speed records: this is why on the eve of the inaugural race in 2021, in Doha, there is an eye for regard for the table of top speed. We expect surprises, which in fact already arrive in free practice. Johann Zarco, who is starting his second year aboard the Ducati of the Pramac team, demolishes the fateful wall by speeding at 362.4 km / h, an imposition so arrogant as to make the other Desmosedici of officer Jack Miller seem almost slow ( 357.6) and teammate Jorge Martin (358.8). At Mugello, where Zarco replies with a remarkable 360 km / h, Ktm also enters the fight, which thanks to the power of his V4 allows Brad Binder to equal the previous record set in Lusail by his French colleague.
martin’s record
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Nothing new until… yesterday, when at Mugello Jorge Martin managed to snatch the title of fastest rider in the World Championship from his box mate. The Spaniard, despite being the protagonist of an opaque race that saw him finish the race in 13th position, took away the satisfaction of touching 363.6 km / h, currently the highest speed ever achieved by a MotoGP. During the Italian Grand Prix, two other drivers still managed to enter the all-time top ten: Enea Bastianini, who reached 360 km / h in Q2, and Darryn Bynder, who a little surprisingly placed the Yamaha M1 of the WithU Rnf team in ninth place in this special all-time ranking. Which now, in the first ten places, only counts data collected in the last two years, further proof of the progress that MotoGP has made in the last few seasons. Eight of these were occupied by Ducati, which after twenty years of four strokes is confirmed as the maximum reference point in terms of top speed.
motogp, the highest speeds in history
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Here are the ten speed records in the top class
- Jorge Martin – Ducati – Mugello GP 2022 – 363.6 km / h
- Johann Zarco – Ducati – FP4, Qatar 2021 – 362.4 km / h
- Brad Binder – Ktm – FP3, Mugello 2021 – 362.4 km / h
- Johann Zarco – Ducati – Q2, Mugello 2021 – 360 km / h
- Enea Bastianini – Ducati – Q2, Mugello 2022 – 360 km / h
- Jorge Martín – Ducati – Q1, Qatar 2021 – 358.8 km / h
- Enea Bastianini – Ducati – Q1, Mugello 2021 – 358.8 km / h
- Jack Miller – Ducati – Q2, Mugello 2021 – 358.8 km / h
- Darryn Binder – Yamaha – Mugello GP 2022 – 358.8 km / h
- Johann Zarco – Ducati – warm up, Mugello 2021 – 358.8 km / h
May 30, 2022 – 7:03 pm
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