After Darryn Binder moved to the Moto2 class, the 2023 MotoGP field no longer included three, but only two pairs of brothers. Pol and Aleix Espargaro have now taken on the role of test riders at KTM and Honda, leaving only Marc and Alex Marquez. But the number of prominent racing brothers in GP sport is considerable.
Brothers have repeatedly met in the premier class over the last 20 or 30 years. Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki immediately come to mind, who, for example, finished on the podium alongside Mick Doohan in the 1997 500cc GP in Imola.
Looking back, Takuma explained in an interview with GPOne.com: "It's always nice to race against your brothers. Your brother is the first rival you have to beat, whether in training or on the racetrack.»
The Japanese Aoki family was even a special case. Three brothers achieved notable GP successes. With Nobuatsu (he remained a Suzuki MotoGP test rider until 2015), Haruchika (two-time 125cc world champion in 1995 and 1996) and Takuma Aoki (paraplegic after a motorcycle accident), the Aoki family even produced three well-known racing riders.
In the 500cc class, Takuma and Nobuatsu met in 1997, and in 1999 it was Haruchika and Nobuatsu. In 2020, two brothers, Marc and Alex Marquez, competed together for the first time in the Repsol MotoGP factory team, but the older brother and six-time MotoGP champion was already out of the delayed season opener in July due to injury.
After his rookie season, Alex was transferred to LCR-Honda, and in 2023 the two were no longer brand colleagues for the first time in their joint MotoGP career. The younger Marquez moved to the Ducati customer team of Gresini Racing a year before Marc.
The second pair of brothers in the MotoGP field were Aleix (35) and Pol Espargaro (33) for almost ten years. They have met head to head in the premier class since 2014, most recently in 2024 in Pol's wild card appearances on the Red Bull KTM RC16.
Brad and Darryn Binder completed their first and last MotoGP year together in 2022. In 2023 and 2024, Darryn competed in the Moto2 class for the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP team, now he has moved to Gresini.
In 2021, Valentino Rossi and his brother Luca Marini ensured that three pairs of brothers competed against each other in the premier class. The retirement of the nine-time world champion broke up a sibling duo in the MotoGP World Championship, but Marini at least remained in the family's VR46 Ducati MotoGP racing team.
A look into the history books
- The last time two brothers competed against each other in MotoGP before the Espargaros entered the team in 2014 was in 2010 at the US GP at Laguna Seca. At that time, Nicky Hayden competed for Ducati, while brother Roger Lee replaced Randy de Puniet at LCR-Honda. Both riders scored points: 5th place for Nicky, 11th place for Roger Lee.
- The last time two brothers were permanent MotoGP riders before 2014 was in 2004, when Kenny and Kurtis Roberts rode the 990cc Proton KR V5 machine.
- In addition to the Roberts brothers in 2004, other brothers competed full-time in the premier class: Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki in 1997, Bernard and Marc Garcia in 1994 and 1995, Dominique and Christian Sarron in 1989.
- The last two brothers to stand together on the premier class (Sprint race) podium were Alex and Marc Marquez. They stood second and third in the German GP held at the Sachsenring, the two Spaniards on Ducatis replicated what the Aoki family did in 1997: Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki: they finished 2nd and 3rd in the 1997 Imola GP alongside Mick Doohan.
- The only other occasion on which two brothers met on the podium in the premier class was in Argentina in 1962. Juan Salatino came second, brother Eduardo third.
Extensive list across all classes
In the smaller classes, Alex and William De Angelis from San Marino competed together in the 125cc World Championship from 1999 to 2001 and later Hiroshi and Shuhei Aoyama competed for years in the 250cc class.
The list of pairs of brothers, both of whom competed in GPs at different times or in different classes, is much longer, and includes around 50 pairs in total.
Marc and Alex Marquez were the first brothers to win a motorcycle world championship title (MotoGP and Moto3) in the same year in 2014, thus making GP history. As a reward for the Moto3 title, Alex Marquez was allowed to test the MotoGP Honda RC213V after the finale in Valencia in 2014. Both Marquez brothers raced around the track on Repsol Honda machines at the time.
In 2015, a second pair of brothers wanted to compete in the MotoGP class alongside the Espargaros. Superbike World Championship star Eugene Laverty started for the Aspar team, but brother Michael Laverty was denied a MotoGP place after Paul Bird Motorsport withdrew.
It would have been a double premiere: Never before in GP history had two pairs of brothers competed as regular riders in the premier class at the same time. And for the first time, two brothers would not have started for the same nation.
The Lavertys come from Northern Ireland, which is part of Great Britain, and Michael rode under the British flag. Eugene, however, had an Irish license and was therefore considered a pilot from Ireland.
Incidentally, the first brothers to win motorcycle Grands Prix were Christian and Dominique Sarron. Christian won a total of seven Grands Prix in the 250cc and 500cc classes. Dominique dominated four 250cc races and finished the 1986 season in third place in the World Championship.
In recent years, more and more brothers have appeared on the GP scene. With the Turks Can and Deniz Öncü, we even saw twins competing in the same class (Moto3) in 2019.
They already shone with overall places 1st and 2nd in the 2018 Red Bull Rookies Cup. And Can won at the age of 15.5 in 2018 on his GP debut in Valencia before switching to the Supersport World Championship.
At the 2023 Sachsenring GP, Deniz Öncü was the second of the Turkish twins, who celebrated their 20th birthday on July 26, 2023, to join this statistic. Because in his 63rd Moto3 World Championship start, the talented Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) achieved his long-awaited first GP victory.
Twin brother Can at the age of 15 years and 119 days, Can went down in the history books in 2018 as the youngest GP winner of all time when he triumphed in the rain as a wild card rider in Valencia on his debut in the Moto3 World Championship.
The Lowes twins also both spent a short time together in the MotoGP paddock in 2016, when Alex competed in the Grands Prix at Silverstone and Misano for Tech3-Yamaha eight years ago and Sam raced in the Moto2 series for Gresini Racing.
Brothers who competed in different or the same GP classes:
Adrian and Raúl Fernandez
Marc and Alex Marquez
Pol and Aleix Espargaro
Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini
Axel and Edgar Pons
Deniz and Can Öncü
Eugene and Michael Laverty
Sam and Alex Lowes
Brad and Darryn Binder
Mick and Scott Doohan
Nobuatsu, Haruchika and Takuma Aoki
Kensuke and Noriyuki Haga
Vesa and Mika Kallio
Giacomo and Felice Agostini
Jacque and Pierre Bolle
Jorge and Raul Kissling
George and Peter Looijesteyn
Matti and Penti Salonen
Patrick and Jurgen van der Goorbergh
Francesco and Walter Villa
Alfred and Gerhard Waibel
Horst and Helmut Kassner
Christian and Dominique Sarron
Nicky and Roger Hayden
Kenny Jr. and Kurtis
