Jakarta – Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia is eyeing history by becoming the first rider to win both the MotoGP and World Superbike (WSBK) championships.
The 26-year-old has already clinched two MotoGP titles, securing victories in 2022 and just last month in the 2023 season.
Bagnaia hasn’t ruled out a future move to WSBK, although he remains fully focused on his MotoGP career for now. However, he says it’s not the right time for such a transition yet.
“I sometimes think about (moving to World Superbikes),” he admitted, as quoted by Crash, acknowledging his desire.
“I like seeing the numbers and statistics at the end of the season. Wikipedia is a page I often visit! I would also like to win in (World) Superbikes, but there’s still time,” he added.
To date, several riders have made the switch from MotoGP to WSBK and vice versa, but none have managed to achieve success in both. Troy Bayliss, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, James Toseland, and Ben Spies are among those who attempted to win titles in both categories. However, they all fell short.
These names moved to the other class after having already claimed championships in one. Unfortunately, their winning streaks didn’t carry over.
One rider who came close to securing titles in both classes was Max Biaggi. He triumphed twice in WSBK, in 2010 and 2012.
Nonetheless, he failed to secure a championship in MotoGP when he made the transition. His best finishes were second-place finishes in three different seasons: 1998 (500cc), 2001 (500cc), and 2002 (MotoGP).