These are two Spanish drivers competing against an elite club of winners

Until now, at MotoGP, No driver has ever won World Championship races with three different brandsbut in the 74-year history of the grand prix, as many as four drivers have achieved it in the premier class.

A piece of history awaits the two Spaniards in 2024, Alex Rins and Maverick Viñalesto join the elite club of four drivers who have won with three different manufacturers: Mike Hailwood, Randy Mamola, Eddie Lawson and, most recently, Loris Capirossi.

Alex Rins took Honda’s only victory last year with the RC213V in LCR Castrol colors at Austin/Texas. After five wins on the Suzuki GSX-RR, this is the Catalan rider’s sixth GP victory in his MotoGP career in 2017. Thus Rins joins the select list of eight riders who have won on two different machines since the introduction of the MotoGP four -stroke category in 2002. Before him, only Jack Miller (Honda and Ducati), Andrea Dovizioso (Honda and Ducati), Casey Stoner (Ducati and Honda), Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha and Ducati), Maverick Viñales (Suzuki and Yamaha ), Max Biaggi (Yamaha and Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Honda and Yamaha) achieved this feat. With his signing for the official Yamaha team, Rins now has the chance to become the first rider in the MotoGP era to win with all three brands in 2024.

Of course, the same can be said for Aprilia factory rider ‘Mack’ Viñales (2016 Silverstone GP win with Suzuki, followed by eight wins with Yamaha). Viñales has raced for three different brands in MotoGP: Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia. Viñales’ first and only victory with Suzuki was in 2016 at Silverstone, his only victory with the Hamamatsu brand, where he debuted in the premier class last year. With his arrival at Yamaha in 2017, victories began to happen more often, the first in Qatar that year, which was repeated in Argentina, in the next race, and Le Mans in the same year. Maverick won as many as eight races at the handlebars of the M1, the last again in Qatar. After the difficult first few months of adaptation to Aprilia, Viñales is once again a competitive rider capable of winning races and no one doubts that it is only a matter of time before he adds a victory to his record, which will be historic .

The first rider to do the ‘treble’ was the legendary Mike Hailwood, who in 1961 won the Isle of Man 500cc race on a Norton. That same year, at the wheel of an MV Agusta he won at Monza. In 1966 Mike signed for Honda, where he managed to win eight grand prix in two years.

The second is another legend, Randy Mamola, who despite not being crowned champion, managed to win for three different brands. In 1980 he added the first of his five Suzuki victories; In 1984 he went to Honda, where he won four more races, before joining Yamaha in 1986 and adding four more victories. Mamola came very close to becoming the first and only rider to win in four different brands, when he stood on the podium of the Belgian GP (3rd) in 1988 on the handlebars of a Cagiva.

Then we see Eddie Lawson, who after six years of racing for Yamaha between 1983 and 1988, achieving 26 victories and three championships, went to Honda in 1989 to win four races and add new 500 crowns in his record. Before retiring in 1992, he achieved a victory for Cagiva, the third different manufacturer with which he achieved it.

The latest member of this elite club of winners with three different brands is the Italian Loris Capirossi, who has achieved nine victories in the premier class and has done so with three different brands. In 1996 he made the jump to 500cc with Yamaha and won in Australia. After returning to 250cc, he returned to the fray in 2000, achieving a surprising victory in the 500cc Italian Grand Prix at the handlebars of a private Honda from the Pons Racing team. The best moment in Capirossi’s career was the arrival of Ducati in MotoGP, in 2003, achieving seven wins for the Borgo Panigale house. Like Mamola, Capirossi came close to winning with four different brands, reaching the third step of the podium with Suzuki at the 2008 Czech Republic Grand Prix.