MotoGP 2023 Guide | visor down

WE are just a few days away from the first official tests of the MotoGP 2023 World Championship when the teams and riders will be heading off for a first taste of their 2023 MotoGP machines

Once the tests are done, we have just a month to wait before the riders and teams head to round 1, the Portuguese GP, at Portimão. What lies ahead is a bumper season, with more rounds than ever before, another new world champion, and question marks hanging above one of the biggest names in the modern MotoGP era. If one thing is for sure, this year’s MotoGP championship is one you can’t afford to miss.

In this article we’ll be looking at the 2023 MotoGP season in detail, outlining the classes that take part, the rounds they will be racing at, and the riders and teams that will be fighting it out for victory. If further information is required, we’ll link to where you can read more, and you can use the navigation below to quickly skip to the section you’re looking for.

We’ll be regularly updating this guide to the 2023 MotoGP season so keep checking in.

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classes | 2023 MotoGP rider lineup | 2023 Moto2 rider lineup | 2023 Moto3 rider lineup | 2023 MotoGP calendar

How the 2022 MotoGP season unfolded

The MotoGP season in 2022 was a historic moment in many respects. Firstly, it marked the fourth different champion in four years, after Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia took the rider’s title for his beloved factory Ducati Lenovo Team MotoGP. That in itself marked the end of a 15-year quest from the Italian team to regain motorcycle sport’s biggest crown.

Attempting to hold on to the title this year was Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, riding for the factory Yamaha Monster Energy MotoGP Team. And while there were other contenders throughout the year, Enea Bastianini and Aleix Espargaró to name just two, it only took till the mid-season to realize that the duo of Bagnaia and Quartararo were just in a class of their own.

Eventually though, it was the Italian’s decent run of results in the mid-season (he claimed five wins out of seven races in the middle of the year) that sealed the championship, with Quartararo fighting on to take the championship down to the wire.

To keep the action rolling, and to help bring on young talent, the MotoGP championship runs various classes throughout the racing weekend. Often called the ‘Premier Class’, MotoGP sits at the top of the tree, with Moto2 in the middle and Moto3 at the bottom. There is also a class for solely electric bikes called MotoE, which for this year is being supplied motorcycles built by Ducati as it looks to figure out the new world of battery-powered machines.

The MotoGP class

Grand Prix racing motorcycles are out-and-out racing prototypes, designed specifically for the purpose of traveling around a racing track as fast as possible. They might not be based directly on production bikes that you or I can go and buy, but that isn’t to say the lessons learned on the track don’t trickle down to road-going motorcycles. Slipper clutches, IMU control, and even aerodynamics were all technologies that were forged in the crucible of Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

All the bikes in the top-flight use 1,000cc engines that can have no more than four cylinders and must use a maximum bore of 81mm. Some manufacturers run an inline four-cylinder, such as Yamaha, while the others, KTM, Aprilia, Ducati, and Honda, all run a V4 configuration.

Each team must use a specific number of tires for each round, they get a fixed amount of engines to use (and are penalized if they go over that amount) and the bikes must carry no more than 22-litres of fuel to complete the race distance.

The different teams and manufacturers are obviously tight-lipped on what sort of weight, power, and torque output of their machines, although as a rule of thumb, it’s widely assumed they have between 250 and 300bhp and are thought to weigh around 160kg when fully filled up.

2023 MotoGP teams

The MotoGP grid in 2023 will include four manufacturers and eleven teams. Each team will run the same two riders throughout the championship unless they require a stand-in due to injury or a rider leaving the team.

Honda is represented on the grid by the factory Repsol Honda Team and LCR Honda Castrol/Idemitsu team. Ducati by the factory Ducati Lenovo Team, Gresini Racing MotoGP, Prima Pramac Racing (Ducati), Mooney VR46 Racing Team (Ducati). Aprilia has the factory Aprilia Racing and RNF MotoGP Team (Aprilia), while KTM fields the factory Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team and Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing team.

The ‘factory’ teams are generally the ones with the closest links to the manufacturer and the latest tech. they will also normally have greater resources than the smaller ‘satellite’ teams under the same manufacturer. The satellite teams play an important role though, and not just as a method of bulking up the grids. They help to nurture young talent, and, as Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin showed in 2022, they can steal the odd win when the stars align.

As well as the riders listed below, teams may call on ‘wildcard’ riders, who can be offered extra rides alongside, or instead of, the factory riders at selected events. Last year saw Michele Pirro appear as a wildcard Mugello, Barcelona, ​​and Misano, while British Moto2 racer Jake Dixon stepped up for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Team and Manufacturer	riders
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team	Fabio Quartararo #20 Franco Morbidelli #21
Ducati Lenovo team	Francesco Bagnaia #63 Enea Bastianini #23
Aprilia Racing	Aleix Espargaro #41 Maverick Vinales #12
Repsol Honda Team	Marc Marquez #93 Joan Mir #36
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	Jack Miller #43 Brad Binder #33
Gresini Racing MotoGP (Ducati)	Alex Marquez #73 Fabio di Giannantonio #49
Prima Pramac Racing (Ducati)	Johann Zarco #5 George Martin #89
Mooney VR46 Racing Team (Ducati)	Luca Marini #10 Marco Bezzecchi #72
RNF MotoGP Team (Aprilia)	Miguel Oliveira #88 Raul Fernández #25
Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing (KTM)	Pol Espargaro #44 Augusto Fernández #37
LCR Honda Castrol/Idemitsu	Alex Rins #42 Takaaki Nakagami #30

The Moto2 class

The next class of bikes that race in the MotoGP championship is called Moto2 and is quite different from the top class in a number of ways. The biggest difference is in that this championship is a controlled engine class, meaning all bikes run the same engine, which is sealed meaning no modifications can be made. Since 2019, all Moto2 bikes have been powered by the British motorcycle maker Triumph and its 765 inline three-cylinder unit. Performance figures are still hazy, although it’s thought the engine produces in excess of 140bhp.

The engines might be sealed, but the rest of the rules for Moto2 are pretty open. Frames for this class come from Speed ​​Up, Kalex, and MV Agusta. All teams must use the same spec Dunlop slick racing tires. The bike and rider in Moto2 must weigh at least 217kg and the machines have been clocked at speeds approaching 190mph.

team	riders
Speed ​​Up Racing	Fermin Aldeguer Alonso Lopez
American racing	Rory Skinner Sean Dylan Kelly
Eleven Marc VDS Racing Team	Tony Arbolino Sam Lowes
Flexbox HP40	Aaron Canet Sergei Garcia
GASGAS Aspar Team	Jake Dixon Izan Guevara
Gresini Racing Moto2	Philip Salac Jeremy Alcoba
Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Ai Ogura Somkiat Chantra
Italtrans Racing Team	Dennis Foggia JoeRoberts
Liqui Moly Husqvarna Factory Team	Darryn Binder Luke Tulovic
Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Lorenzo DallaPorta Bo Bendsneyder
Red Bull KTM Ajo	Pedro Acosta Albert Arenas
RW RacingGP	Barry Baltos Zonta van den Goorbergh
Team Fantic VR46	Celestino Vietti Nicocolo Antonelli
Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kohta Nozane Manuel González
MV Augusta Forward Racing	Alex Escrig Marcos Ramírez

The Moto3 Class

The third and final class of petrol-powered racing in the MotoGP championship is called Moto3, and regularly provides the closest, most exciting racing of all three classes. The bikes are small and light, the racers young and eager to please, and the bikes extremely evenly matched.

Like Moto2, the Moto3 championship is a controlled engine class, with Honda providing powerplants for all the bikes on the grid. Since 2012, Moto3 has used 250cc, four-stroke, single-cylinder engines – formally they were 250cc, two-stroke screamers. The engine produces around 60 bhp, and while that may not sound like a lot, with a weight of around 80kg, they have still been clocked at more than 150mph on track.

team	riders
Leopard Racing	Jaume Masia Tatsuki Suzuki
Angeluss MTA Team	Ivan Ortola Stefano Nepa
BOE Motorsports	Ana Carrasco David Munoz
CFMOTO Racing PruestelGP	Xavier Artigas Joel Kelso
C.I.P. Green Power	Lorenzo Fellon DavidSalvador
GASGAS Aspar Team	Ryusei Yamanaka David Alonso
Honda Team Asia	Mario Suryo Aji Taiyo Furusato
Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP	Ayumu Sasaki Collin Veijer
MT Helmets – MSI	Diogo Moreira Syarifuddin Azman
Red Bull KTM Ajo	Deniz Oncu Jose Antonio Rueda
Red Bull KTM Tech3	Filippo Faroli TB
Rivacold Snipers Team	Matteo Bertelle Romano Fenati
SIC58 Squadra Corse	Kaito Toba Riccardo Rossi
Visiontrack Racing Team	Scott Ogden Joshua Whatley

2023 MotoGP schedule

The 21 races in the 2023 MotoGP calendar, this season is set to be the biggest on record, as new events from Kazakstan and India join the championship. As is customary, the riders and teams get some pre-season tests, with the first of those taking place at Sepang early next month. That event will focus on rookie and test riders, with the full-time pilots getting a chance later in February. The paddock will then move to Portugal, for the final shakedown test scheduled for March 11th & 12th, two weeks before the opening round of the season.

dates	Race	venue
March 24-26	Portuguese GP	Algarve International Circuit
31 March – 2 April	Argentine GP	Termas de Rio Hondo
14-16 April	America’s GP	COTA
28-30 April	Spanish GP	jerez
12-14 May	French GP	Le Mans
June 9-11	Italian GP	Mugello
June 16-18	German GP	Sachsenring
June 23-25	Dutch GP	aces
July 7-9	Kazakhstan GP	Sokol International Race Track
4-6 Aug	British GP	Silverstone
18-20 Aug	Austrian GP	Red Bull Ring
1-3 September	Catalan GP	Barcelona
8-10 Sept	San Marino GP	Misano
September 22-24	Indian GP	Buddh International Circuit
29 September – 1 October	Japanese GP	Motegi
13-15 October	Indonesian GP	Mandalika
20-22 October	Australian GP	Phillip Island
27-29 October	Thailand GP	Buriram
10-12 November	Malaysian GP	Sepang
17-19 November	Qatar GP	Losail
24-26 November	Valencia GP	Ricardo Tormo

Qatar will still be the only night race in the MotoGP 2023 season, and the Indian and Kazakstan venues are awaiting confirmation that they are FIM homologated and okay to hold an event.