The 2023 MotoGP season was one of the most intense in the series’ history, with the championship battle between Ducati duo Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin lasting until the final race of a historic season that also saw sprints introduced for the first time.
Bagnaia eventually won his second title by 39 points, closing off a banner year for Ducati in which it won a record 17 GPs across six of its eight riders, gained 43 total podiums, and achieved eight rostrum lockouts.
There were notable performances elsewhere, with Aprilia winning twice with Aleix Espargaro and Honda winning once in a disastrous season with Alex Rins. New victors emerged, while others put forth great performances while never reaching the top step of the platform.
To determine who we believe are the ten best riders for the 2023 MotoGP season, we considered both results and results relative to the machinery at their disposal. Also mentioned is how they compared to previous year’s top ten ranking.
#10. Alex Marquez
After a strong debut season with the factory Honda team in 2020, where he scored HRC’s only podiums, the next two years with LCR proved to be a struggle for the 2019 Moto2 world champion.
Taking advantage of competitive machinery at Gresini with a 2022-spec Ducati, the 27-year-old Marquez was a constant top 10 finisher on Sundays, including a podium.
#9. Luca Marini
Marini finished 2023 as one of just two Ducati riders without a grand prix win, but he firmly established himself as more than simply Valentino Rossi’s half-brother.
His best Sunday finish was a second in Austin, but podiums were few and far between for a third-year rider on the grid’s strongest bike.
A two-race injury lay-off caused by his own collarbone break after colliding with VR46 teammate Marco Bezzecchi on the opening lap of the Indian GP sprint certainly prevented him from achieving more in the second half of the season, despite feeling like he’d made a significant step in understanding the bike at the Misano test in September.
#8. Johann Zarco
Johann Zarco’s long quest for his first MotoGP victory ended in 2023, when he took the top step of the podium in a dramatic Australian Grand Prix.
A poor second half derailed his chances of beating Binder to fourth in the standings and keeping him in our top ten: riding the factory Ducati he had, weekly podiums must be an absolute minimum requirement.
While his strengths were in the way he looked after his tyres and could rally in the second half of races, which helped him win in Australia, his lack of early-lap explosiveness was highlighted by his lack of sprint podiums (he is the only rider on this list who has not taken a half-distance race podium).
#7. Fabio Di Giannantonio
Di Giannantonio’s turnaround in form from Japan to the end of the season to score 108 points pushed him upwards in many people’s estimates and ultimately rescued his MotoGP career after scoring only 53 points in the first 14 rounds of the 2023 season.
Di Giannantonio had not finished in the top six in a MotoGP race since his debut in 2022, but he placed fourth in Indonesia before finishing third in Australia.
Everything came together for him to win his first race in Qatar. He finished second at Valencia, but a post-race tyre pressure penalty dropped him to fourth.
According to the crew boss, they barely touched his bike in the final seven rounds after making the critical breakthrough.
Though it was good that Di Giannantonio’s incident with Marc Marquez (which forced him out of Gresini) resulted in the VR46 opportunity for 2024, Di Giannantonio’s finale to 2023 shown he deserved another year. However, he must carry this energy into the start of 2024 and maintain it throughout.
#6. Marco Bezzecchi
Bezzecchi’s sophomore season in the top class of 2023 was a breakout year for him. After dazzled with flashes of speed in his debut season in 2022, the Italian took a significant step forward by winning three grand prix, all of which were devastatingly delivered.
Bezzecchi was extremely fantastic when he was good. That’s what kept him in title contention, albeit as an outsider, until the season’s third-to-last round.
However, Bezzecchi’s consistency was not always on his side, with fantastic weekends being followed by average ones. Several injuries, including a broken collarbone during preparing for the Indonesian Grand Prix, did not assist his cause.
Bezzecchi proved he was a true frontrunner in MotoGP on year-old Ducati gear. Staying with the VR46 team on a year-old in 2024 should help him to improve on the consistency that eluded him at times last season.
#5. Aleix Espargaro
After fighting for the championship in a 2022 season of strong consistency that resulted in a maiden grand prix victory, Aleix Espargaro and Aprilia had a lot riding on their shoulders in 2023.
But the Spaniard’s career never truly took off. It would take until the Dutch GP for him to gain his first podium of the season, a gifted third in the Sunday race due to Brad Binder’s track limitations penalty.
He kept his perfect record of outscoring every Aprilia teammate since joining the company in 2017, but by only two points.
Going into the winter with the possibility that 2024 will not be his final season in MotoGP, the 34-year-old must match his 2022 consistency to the overall performance advances he made in 2023.
#4. Brad Binder
Binder’s hunt for a third grand prix triumph will continue into 2024, but he came agonisingly near on a few times in 2023 as KTM made improvements – but not enough to reach an agreement with Ducati.
The South African is to KTM what Marc Marquez is to Honda and Fabio Quartararo is to Yamaha – a cut above the rest of a decent stable, wringing every weekend the absolute maximum out of his package. He finished 2023 over 130 points ahead of the next-best KTM rider, Jack Miller.
In 2023, the RC16 took the biggest stride forward in its seven seasons in MotoGP, while a late-season move to its new carbon fibre chassis helped resolve some critical weak points.
If it maintains its upward trend, Binder has once again demonstrated that he is more than capable of being a weekly threat when the bike is willing.
#3. Fabio Quartararo
From the great heights of the world championship in 2021 to nearly missing out last year on inferior machinery, Fabio Quartararo’s career in MotoGP reached a low point in 2023.
The Yamaha’s lack of speed and loss of performance through the turns, as well as its apparent lack of gains relative to its rivals, ensured that neither Quartararo nor teammate Franco Morbidelli could reach the podium in 2023.
#2. Jorge Martin
Jorge Martin was threatening to become a near-man in MotoGP after the first few rounds of 2023. His outstanding debut year in 2021 was difficult to replicate in 2022 due to the Ducati engine he had to race being much more aggressive than previously.
While he felt much more at relaxed on the 2023 Ducati and finished second in sprints in Portugal and Austin, he had to wait until the French GP sprint for a win before finishing second on Sunday. He wouldn’t take the top step of the podium on a Sunday again until the German GP.
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His collision with Marc Marquez in the Valencia GP, when he had gone off after Bagnaia and got dragged into his slipstream, destroyed his chances of winning the title. However, it was important errors at vital times that ultimately sank him.
But this is all part of the learning process. Tidying this up in 2024 and combining it with the raw speed he undoubtedly possesses would make him an even more formidable opponent for Bagnaia.
#1 Francesco Bagnaia
Francesco Bagnaia made too many blunders in the early part of his first championship-winning season. And, while his epic comeback from 91 points behind Quartararo was aided in no small part by the Yamaha being a considerably worse motorbike than the Ducati.
He couldn’t do the same thing in 2023 if he wanted to win the championship again, not least since his biggest rival was expected to come from within the Ducati stable.
A flawless start in Portugal was followed by crashes when racing second in Argentina and first in America, which he blamed at the time on the GP23 being too stable.
Maverick Vinales recorded a third non-score in France, and he dropped out of the podium positions on his own in India later in the season.
Despite making too many blunders for a world champion, he rebounded forcefully. Seven GP victories, including three sprint/GP doubles, kept him in contention even as his Saturday form shifted from being the best in the first part of the season to causing him problems in the second.
Some of that could be attributable to the leg injuries he sustained in the horrible episode in Barcelona when Binder ran over his leg. Even once he recovered, his Saturday form lagged below that of title contender Martin, as his powerful front-end feeling faded at times.
Fortunately, it was his ability to turn things around, as well as the manner in which he handled the championship finale – qualifying second (and then being promoted to pole due to a penalty for Vinales), ensuring he did enough when he struggled in the sprint to fifth, and winning the GP as Martin imploded – that highlighted his champion’s credentials.
