MotoGP Retro Liveries Revealed for British Grand Prix
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, the MotoGP teams have revealed their retro liveries for the 75th anniversary celebrations this weekend
All 11 MotoGP teams have revealed their respective one-off liveries for this weekend’s retro race at the British Grand Prix.
MotoGP announced earlier this year that Silverstone would host a retro round of championship in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the championship, which began in 1949.
Yamaha
Yamaha revealed its livery first, with a throwback to its classic red-and-white ‘speedblocks’ livery of the 1970s, which was last used by the factory team at the 2011 Dutch TT.
Yamaha’s retro livery includes yellow backgrounds for the numbers, like the 500cc class used to have, and was accompanied by retro helmets for all three Yamaha riders this weekend: Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo, and Remy Gardner, who is wildcarding in place of test rider Cal Crutchlow, who is injured.
Honda
Honda’s livery features HRC corporate colours in a design based on the 1983 season, in which Freddie Spencer won the first of his two 500cc world titles. Like Yamaha, the livery has yellow plate backgrounds and retro helmet designs from the riders: Luca Marini and Joan Mir.
LCR Honda
LCR Honda has two liveries, as its two riders — Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami — each have different primary sponsors. Nakagami’s isn’t much changed from standard, but the Castrol design of Zarco is mostly green, and features an old Castrol logo. Both bikes feature a retro Honda badge on the tank.
Pramac
Pramac Ducati’s livery is a black and red design based on the motorcycle of Spanish legend and 12+1-times World Champion Angel Nieto, whose nephew, Fonsi, works in the Pramac team. This, for us, is at least among the top three.
Ducati
Ducati’s, however, isn’t, as they tried to do a Marlboro throwback, but had it ruined by their current title sponsor, Lenovo, whose black rectangle might have at least been barcoded to create some kind of illusion of history.
KTM/GasGas
KTM obviously doesn’t have much MotoGP history to fall back on, but it spread its white livery across both its factory team and the Tech3 GasGas satellite squad. It feels a bit off to seemingly claim GasGas history as KTM history, but it looks fairly good.
Trackhouse
If KTM has little MotoGP history, Trackhouse has even less. But, America has a lot, and the American-owned team leant into that for its livery with portraits of many of Americas champions from Nicky Hayden to Kenny Roberts. It’s not the prettiest design, but the sentiment is exceptional.
Aprilia
We’ve saved the best for last with Aprilia. Chesterfield-Biaggi. That’s all you need to know.