Top speed is one of the visible parameters of a bike’s competitiveness, allowing riders to have an advantage or disadvantage when overtaking on straights – for example, Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha, for a long time, called for improvements in this area. However, Carlos Checa believes it is not one of the most determining factors.
The former rider was asked by Motosan.es if, with the good top speed it has, KTM can be the main rival of Ducati. In response, he stated: ‘No, the point is not speed, it’s the overall package. In MotoGP, it’s not just about top speed, but the whole package, which manages to exit corners well’.
Checa continued his explanation: ‘Ultimately, I think at the speed level, all bikes don’t make a difference, at most it can help you make a specific overtaking move at a particular moment. But with the maximum acceleration, how are you going, because the top speed of a MotoGP bike depends on the track, it’s 14% of the total time. So, that’s not where you make the difference’.
On the other hand, the Spanish rider pointed out that currently there are no radical differences in top speed between bikes, so the importance lies in other areas: ‘Now the differences are not so great between one bike and another, in terms of speed. So, other aspects are more important, besides pure power, because all are already at a very high level’.
Looking at the Portuguese GP, the highest top speed was from Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia), with 350.6km/h. The Portuguese finished ninth. On the opposite end, Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati) was the slowest, with an average of 338.5km/h.