Racing statistics is fun. How you cut and slice the data can make things appear better or worse than the perception. It's important to remember that while you're reading this article. When determining the best riders in MotoGP, you have multiple selection criteria, and each will provide a different outcome. Do you go on race wins or championships? Nicky Hayden is a world champion but only won three races during his MotoGP career. At the other end of the scale, Dani Pedrosa took the top step of the podium thirty-one times during his MotoGP years but failed to bag a single championship. Rossi has won more races than Agostini, but Agostini remains at the top of the tree regarding titles. However, what I'm going to try and determine in this article is dominance.
To determine dominance, I'm going to calculate wins per season. So, I'll divide each rider's total race wins by the number of years they were active in MotoGP. I will only include riders who have scored fifteen or more race wins during their career. Apologies to Randy Mamola and Max Biaggi, but you fell a little short of this competition with your thirteen wins a piece. I'd like to include more, but given 120 individuals with MotoGP race wins against their name, that would involve spending a level of time with Microsoft Excel that I'm not comfortable with. With that said, let's dive into the data.
| Rider | Nationality | First Season | Last Season | Wins | Wins per Season |
| STONER, Casey | Australian | 2006 | 2012 | 38 | 5.43 |
| MARQUEZ, Marc | Spanish | 2013 | - | 59 | 5.36 |
| AGOSTINI, Giacomo | Italian | 1965 | 1977 | 68 | 5.23 |
| DOOHAN, Mick | Australian | 1989 | 1999 | 54 | 4.91 |
| ROSSI, Valentino | Italian | 2000 | 2021 | 89 | 4.05 |
| RAINEY, Wayne | American | 1988 | 1993 | 24 | 4.00 |
| LORENZO, Jorge | Spanish | 2008 | 2019 | 47 | 3.92 |
| HAILWOOD, Mike | British | 1958 | 1967 | 37 | 3.70 |
| ROBERTS, Kenny | American | 1978 | 1983 | 22 | 3.67 |
| LAWSON, Eddie | American | 1983 | 1992 | 31 | 3.10 |
| BAGNAIA, Francesco | Italian | 2019 | - | 15 | 3.00 |
| SURTEES, John | British | 1952 | 1960 | 22 | 2.75* |
| SCHWANTZ, Kevin | American | 1986 | 1995 | 25 | 2.50 |
| DUKE, Geoff | British | 1950 | 1959 | 22 | 2.20 |
| SPENCER, Freddie | American | 1980 | 1993 | 20 | 2.00** |
| PEDROSA, Dani | Spanish | 2006 | 2018 | 31 | 1.94* |
| GARDNER, Wayne | Australian | 1983 | 1992 | 18 | 1.80 |
| SHEENE, Barry | British | 1974 | 1984 | 19 | 1.73 |
| CRIVILLE, Alex | Spanish | 1992 | 2001 | 15 | 1.50 |
| DOVIZIOSO, Andrea | Italian | 2008 | 2022 | 15 | 1.00 |
*number of active years adjusted to account for a break
**number of active years adjusted to account for two breaks
Analysis
Given our criteria and the resulting data, there's no escaping the fact that Casey Stoner is, so far, the most dominant rider in MotoGP. Of course, Stoner achieved the staggering rate of 5.43 wins per season because he did what so few riders do and quit when he was at the top of his game. Stoner won two championships during his seven years in MotoGP, taking his first title in 2007. The 2007 season was a display of dominance rarely seen in the championship. The combination of Ducati's GP7 powerhouse, Bridgestone tyres, and Stoner's natural ability to bend the bike to his will resulted in ten wins and four podiums out of the 18 races that season, accumulating a staggering 367 points.
Stoner's next few seasons with Ducati didn't match the success of 2007. Plagued with technical and health issues, each successive season with Ducati returned fewer wins and podiums. In 2010 his final season with Ducati, Stoner still took three race wins and five podiums. However, the magic returned in 2011 when Stoner jumped ship to Honda. In his first of two seasons with Honda, our favourite Australian bagged ten wins and six podiums. Stoner announced his retirement from racing at the end of the 2012 season after taking another five victories and six podiums.
Stoner's premature retirement is crucial to his ranking in this table. If a rider appears, wins a lot, and then disappears, that rider will appear dominant. While some riders have scored many more victories, they tend to be over a longer period and include times when the rider isn't so competitive.
Rossi tops the chart in terms of race wins, but his wins per season score is seriously hampered by lacklustre results after his final championship title in 2009. In fact, had Rossi retired at the end of the 2009 season, he'd have topped this chart with an astonishing 7.7 wins per season. However, over the twelve years following his 2009 title, Rossi only managed to scrape an average of a single win per season, and precisely half of those seasons didn't net a single win.
As you'd expect, Marquez is right up there. However, like Rossi, his average is distorted by a run of unfortunate or disappointing seasons. Had Marquez taken the Stoner approach and retired at the end of his 2019 season—a season in which he scored a record-breaking 420 points—Marquez would have averaged eight wins per season. Nevertheless, while Marquez continues to compete, he'll need a sharp improvement of form to top the table. If he can return to form, he'll need to score seven victories during the 2024 season to displace Stoner at the top of the table. Whether this is possible or not is up for debate, but while it's improbable, it's far from impossible.
Irrelevance
Naturally, all of this is just the slicing and dicing of statistics. I'm certainly not going to claim Stoner is the best or most successful rider in the history of bike racing. Many riders have scored more wins, titles, poles and fast laps than Casey, and many have competed for significantly longer. However, it doesn't alter the facts. If you want to appear dominant and take the world by storm, the recipe is simple: have abundant natural talent, use competitive machinery on good tires, and get out before you burn out.
But these are racers. You can't tell a racer to stop being a racer because they might appear more dominant in an irrelevant chart on a motorcycle blog. Racers race because they believe they can win, and they'll do what they must to chase the next win. Of the 120 riders who have taken a MotoGP win and of the hundreds who have competed over the years, they all go out to compete and put on a show for the fans, sadly often at a high cost to their physical wellbeing.
For a final piece of statistical geekery, I did a quick breakdown of average wins per season based on nationality. Unsurprisingly, the trio of Stoner, Doohan and Gardner score 1st place with 4.05 for the Australians. Italy is in 2nd place with 3.32 wins, followed by Spain with 3.18 wins, the USA with 3.05 and the British with 2.59. Beware of Australians on motorbikes, folks; they're pretty quick.
