MotoGP vs WorldSBK: Current and past riders pick which motorcycles are harder to

Ducati enjoyed its most successful season ever as it returned to the top of two-wheel motorsport thanks to Francesco Bagnaia winning the MotoGP title, and Alvaro Bautista delivering in superb fashion to take a dominant WorldSBK title win. 

Their title win in MotoGP was the first since Casey Stoner in 2007, while in WorldSBK Bautista’s championship success was the Italian manufacturer’s first since Carlos Checa in 2011.

But while the racing in both categories was exceptional, and for very different reasons – MotoGP once again produced several winners while a monumental comeback from Bagnaia saw him overturn an unlikely deficit to beat Fabio Quartararo to the title – whereas in WorldSBK the top three of Bautista, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea went toe-to-toe at nearly every round – one debate resurfaced more than once which centred around the differences between both categories and in particular the challengers of riding both types of machines.

That’s why, with the help of experts such as Iker Lecuona who has competed in both championships over the last two seasons, Razgatlioglu, former world champions James Toseland and Carl Fogarty. plus others, we are taking a look at which bike is or should be considered the hardest to ride.

MotoGP

Starting with the pinnacle of racing, MotoGP machines are like no other as the level of technology, whether it be ride-height devices – front ride-height devices have been banned for the 2023 campaign – or aero packages have helped these prototype machines generate more downforce than ever before.

MotoGP bikes are roughly 10kg lighter than Superbikes, although the power-to-weight ratio along with the outright speed of these bikes makes MotoGP machinery arguably more difficult to control. 

Due to the current levels of aero and downforce that’s implemented in MotoGP, riders have suffered more from over-heating front tyres when following other riders, which has resulted in many crashes.

But what about Michelin tyres? Well, there’s no doubting the performance of the Michelin tyres and they have repeatedly shown that its performance with MotoGP bikes is unrivalled compared to the previous Bridgestone, however, more cold tyre crashes also take place in MotoGP compared to what we see in WorldSBK – Pirelli tyres is the current compound used in WorldSBK.

Highsides can be one of the most dangerous types of crashes, and again, due to the extreme levels of performance being churned out of MotoGP machinery, riders have an added challenge of making sure tyre temperatures are in their optimal working window, which does not appear to be as crucial of a demand in WorldSBK. 

After switching from MotoGP to WorldSBK last season, Lecuona favoured the Michelin’s when bringing up tyres between the two: “In general I think it’s 100% completely different. We have electronics in Superbike but it works differently to MotoGP and also the engine…