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How boring! Eight Ducatis in the first nine positions. This MotoGP is becoming virtually unwatchable... Is that really the case... or not? It’s not the first time that the world championship is being dominated by one manufacturer.
For Honda, which is currently going through an unprecedented crisis and which is next-to-last in the constructors' world championship ahead of Yamaha (but only thanks to Rins' victory in Austin) and last in the team championship, it has happened twice before: the first in Rio, on the circuit of Jacarepaguà, where it placed Rossi, Gibernau, Tamada, Biaggi and Hayden in the first five positions and then in 1996, when there were even 8 Hondas crossing the finish line first with a win for Checa ahead of Doohan, Criville, Cadalora, Okada, Ito, Puig and Barros.
A result that Suzuki had already achieved in 1976 in the GP of Finland, at Imatra, with the victory of Pat Hennen ahead of Lansivuori, privateer Philippe Coulon, Newbold, Lucchinelli, Braun, Findlay and Christian Estrosi… the current mayor of Nice.
Those were the years of the Suzuki-Yamaha duel and in fact the Iwata manufacturer responded in the Tourist Trophy, which was still a round valid for the world championship, with the success of Tom Herron who preceded Richards, Guthie, Takazumi Katayama, future 350 world champion in the 1978, Nicholls and Jon Ekerold, future world champion also of the 350 in 1980.
There is a big difference between what happened in the past and today however: in those years, in fact, both Yamaha and Suzuki sold their 500s directly from the dealership!
You read that right: they sold them. The leasing system had not yet been adopted, the official manufacturers had motorcycles that were decidedly more competitive than those given to privateers so, in 1980 for example, our very own Franco Uncini had the satisfaction of finishing with a Suzuki RG 500 bought from the dealer fourth overall in the world championship - and was labelled 'the fastest privateer in the world’ - behind the official Yamaha of Kenny Roberts, and the equally official Suzukis of Mamola and Lucchinelli.
But do you want to know something else? In that season, the entire 500 grid line-up consisted of 15 Suzukis, 11 Yamahas and one Kawasaki, that of Kork Ballington.
Just three years later, with the arrival of Honda which after the experience of the oval-piston NR (1979) had switched to the two-stroke, Freddie Spencer won the world championship with the three-cylinder NS500, which was flanked in the championship by the RS500 for privateers.
That year Honda fielded 8 bikes, between NS and RS, Yamaha only 3, with Roberts, Lawson and Marc Fontan entered by the French importer Sonauto, while Suzuki 'only' had 9 bikes.
The following year, thanks to the title won by Fast Freddie, Honda fielded 14 bikes, including factory and private ones...but the title went to a Yamaha, Eddie Lawson's and there were only three Iwata bikes on the track: the very official one of Awesome Lawson, followed by that of test rider Taira and that of Virginio Ferrari.
But were they all 'Factory' bikes? Far from it. Virginio Ferrari, complaining of having an inadequate bike compared to Eddie's, branded Giacomo Agostini, then team manager, as the ‘lowest of life' and for that offense he went to court with the 15-time world champion, losing it because he refused to disown the interview in which he said so. An example of fairness and loyalty that cost him dearly.
We know all about this background because… the offending article was ours!
2023 German GP - Ducati: 1. Martin, 2. Bagnaia, 3. Zarco, 4. Bezzecchi, 5. Marini
2003 Rio GP - Honda: 1. Rossi, 2. Gibernau, 3. Tamada, 4. Biaggi, 5. Hayden
1996 Catalan GP - Honda: 1. Checa, 2. Doohan, 3. Crivillé, 4. Cadalora, 5. Okada, 6. Ito, 7. Puig, 8. Barros
1976 Finnish GP - Suzuki: 1. Hennen, 2. Länsivuori, 3. Coulon, 4. Newbold, 5. Lucchinelli 6. Braun, 7. Findlay, 8. Estrosi
1976 Tourist Trophy - Yamaha: 1. Herron, 2. Richards, 3. Guthrie, 4. Katayama, 5. Nicholls, 6. Ekerold
