Go fast, look flash: 2024 MotoGP race bike liveries, ranked

The 2024 MotoGP season kicks off in Qatar this weekend, so we’re taking a quick break from our regular programming for our annual critique of this year’s MotoGP race bike liveries.

MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, producing race bikes with mind-boggling levels of engineering. As much as we love custom bikes and classics here at Bike EXIF, we can just as easily spend hours poring over the details of a well-tuned racing machine.

Engineering only tells part of the story though. Once a race bike is built, it’s up to the team’s designers to make it look good—while keeping the team’s sponsors happy. A good MotoGP livery is arresting and memorable, and should look just as good going 200-plus miles per hour as it does parked in the winner’s circle.

We’ve ranked this year’s MotoGP race bike liveries from worst to best, including only teams that run a single livery for both riders (sorry, LCR Honda). This year’s crop has hits and misses in equal measure—so take a look, and sound off in the comments if you disagree.

10. Trackhouse Racing Trackhouse Racing is the only organization in the world to own both a NASCAR and a MotoGP team, and they want you to know it. When they took over the defunct CryptoDATA RNF team at the end of last year, they broke the news with a pair of Stars and Stripes-themed Aprilia race bikes. At the time, I assumed they were trolling us—but, as it turns out, they weren’t.

Spare a thought for Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, who need to spend the year racing these bikes with straight faces.

9. Yamaha Factory Racing Long before energy drinks took over from tobacco companies as the primary sponsors of motorsport, Yamaha boasted some 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 were pure eye candy. Not so much for their current graphics.

For 2024, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Aldo Drudi-designed ‘camo’ livery persists for another year. And, like most camo-based designs, it isn’t aging well. The Yamaha combination of gloss blue and gloss black will always look sharp—but maybe next year they can trade the jagged camo-inspired graphics for something a little less passé.

8. Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 It’s GASGAS’ second year in MotoGP as a brand, and they’ve marked it with a livery that’s marginally more interesting than the plain red paint job they sported last year. The GASGAS logo still dominates the side of the bike, but the all-red scheme is now punctuated by a fresh hit of branding from new sponsor Red Bull.

It looks passable for what it is—a gigantic branding exercise. GASGAS’ factory sponsorship of the enduring Tech3 team is really just a way for KTM (GASGAS’ parent company) to run a second pair of bikes while getting GASGAS’ name out there. On the plus side, it’s one of the least cluttered liveries on the grid this year.

7. Ducati Lenovo Pecco…