The statistics of the MotoGP, Martin Raines has elaborated these figures on the occasion of the presentation of the 2018 entry list of the MotoGP class, defining it ‘record’.
The record breaking MotoGP grid for 2018 consists of nineteen riders who have previously competed in the class, together with the addition of five ‘rookies’. The full time entry list for this year has the following changes from last year:
– Out from last year are: Jonas Folger, Loris Baz, Sam Lowes and Hector Barbera
. The following five riders are joining the MotoGP grid for 2018: Franco Morbidelli, Tom Luthi, Xavier Simeon, Takaaki Nakagami and Hafizh Syahrin.
The following table shows the grand prix wins and world championships achieved by the riders on the 2018 MotoGP entry list.
The strength of the MotoGP grid can be illustrated by the following facts about the riders lining up:
– There are twelve Grand Prix World Champions on the full-time MotoGP entry list in 2018.
– These twelve riders have won a total of thirty-two World Championships titles between them; a new record for the full-time MotoGP entry list.
– Nine of the riders on the list have won races in the premier class. These nine riders have between them won a total of 215 premier-class GP races – the highest ever number of accumulated premier-class GP wins for the riders on a MotoGP grid.
– Twenty-one riders on the MotoGP entry list have had race victories in at least one of the three classes of Grand Prix racing, with a combined total of Grand Prix victories of 461. The only three riders on the MotoGP entry list who have not stood on the top step of a grand prix podium are: Aleix Espargaro, Danilo Petrucci and Hafizh Syahrin.
The oldest rider on the MotoGP full-time entry list is Valentino Rossi, who celebrated his 39th birthday in February. For the second successive year the youngest rider on the full-time MotoGP entry list is Alex Rins who will be 22 years 100 days old when he lines up on the grid in Qatar.