At Mandalika, Italian riders reached 300 victories in the premier class. No small feat.
But attention: Italy isn’t the only country to have left a huge mark on the history of the 500-MotoGP. Four other nations have gone past 100.
And in this story there’s another number that carries a lot of weight: more than 630 GPs won by bikes with Brembo braking components.
So let’s do something simple: take the Top 10 winningest nations, start from the bottom and see who did what.
Spoiler: there are countries that today seem unbeatable. Others that have practically disappeared from the radar. And some that won everything with Brembo.
Brazil
Seven victories. One man only: Alex Barros.
From 1993 to 2005, he was the one who took Brazil to the top step of the premier class. Four of those wins even came in the wild 500cc two-stroke era.
Of his 7 victories, 6 came with Brembo brakes.
And now?
Brazil is waiting for an heir. All eyes are inevitably on Diogo Moreira, who arrived in MotoGP after becoming Moto2 World Champion in 2025 with Brembo.
Pressure? A little.
Netherlands
The Dutch have won 8 GPs. But there’s one detail: they are all concentrated between 1977 and 1981.
Most of them, 5, were won by Will Hartog. Then come Jack Middelburg with 2 and Boet Van Dulmen with 1.
And with Brembo?
Zero wins.
At the time, Brembo equipped only some bikes and no Dutch rider has managed to win in the premier class since.
More than forty years have passed. Perhaps it is time to update the statistic.
Rhodesia
A time machine is needed.
Rhodesia’s 12 victories came between 1953 and 1964, when MotoGP did not exist yet, the races were run in the 500 class, and Brembo was not yet present in competitions.
The name to remember? Gary Hocking: 8 victories and the world title in 1961.
Seven of those victories came in the same year.
Japan
Honda. Yamaha. Suzuki.
With names like these, you would think Japan would be much higher up, right?
And yet Japanese riders have taken 13 GPs in the premier class.
After 22 years of waiting, Ai Ogura brought Japan back to victory at Assen in 2026.
Before him: Tadayuki Okada, Norifumi Abe, Makoto Tamada, Tohru Ukawa, Takazumi Katayama and Hideo Kanaya.
Of Japan’s 13 victories, 11 came with Brembo.
France
The French have some experience with waiting.
Pierre Monneret won in 1954. To see a French rider out front again, they had to wait 31 years, until Christian Sarron in 1985.
Then along came a certain Fabio Quartararo: 11 wins between 2020 and 2022, and the world title in 2021.
Johann Zarco completed the recent story, winning in Australia in 2023 and in France in 2025.
Total: 16 wins, 15 with Brembo.
Not that many. But in recent years, France has clearly woken up.
Australia
OK, this is where the standings shift up a gear.
From 16, we jump straight to 128 victories.
Australia has produced 12 different winners, but two names carry more weight than the others: Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner.
Doohan: 54 victories.
Stoner: 38.
And every single victory by both riders came with Brembo brakes.
In total, 103 of Australia’s 128 victories have Brembo etched into history.
Few inhabitants. A decidedly disproportionate amount of talent on two wheels.
Great Britain
They were once the ones to beat.
Hailwood. Surtees. Duke. Read. Sheene.
Between 1949 and 1965, the British won 13 world titles in the premier class.
Then, suddenly, almost silence.
From 1981 onwards, Great Britain has won just 3 Grands Prix, all with Cal Crutchlow and all with Brembo.
The historical total remains impressive: 138 victories with 23 different riders.
It’s a bit like having a playlist full of incredible hits, but almost all of them are vintage.
USA
In the 1980s, seeing an American out front was practically the norm.
Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz.
An extraordinary generation.
The result? 154 victories in the premier class.
The problem is that the last one dates back to 2011, with Ben Spies.
Nicky Hayden, meanwhile, claimed 3 in 2006. It may not sound like many, until you remember that he became world champion that same year.
Of those 154 American victories, 63 came with Brembo.
The USA dominated an era. Now only one thing is missing: winning again.
Spain
Here the question is almost the opposite:
how is it possible that Spain had to wait until the Nineties to start winning?
The first was Alex Crivillé. Then came Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and, above all, Marc Márquez.
From there, the progression has been impressive.
Today we stand at 222 victories with 17 different riders.
But the craziest figure is another:
222 victories. 222 with Brembo brakes.
Yes. All of them.
Perfect score.
Italy
Here we are.
Three hundred.
Italy was the first nation to surpass the 200 mark and now it is also the first to reach 300 victories in the premier class.
This number was built by 27 riders.
From Giacomo Agostini, with 68 victories and 8 titles in the premier class, to Valentino Rossi, the most successful Italian with 89 wins.
And Brembo?
Rossi claimed all 89 of his victories using Brembo brakes.
In total, 199 of Italy’s 300 victories came with Brembo.
Translation: practically two out of three.
And now there is a number just waiting to change: 199.
And the others?
The Top 10 does not tell the whole story.
There are in fact three countries outside the ranking that share a distinctive feature: every one of their premier-class victories came with Brembo.
Portugal: 5 victories, all with Miguel Oliveira.
South Africa: 2 victories, both with Brad Binder.
Switzerland: 1 victory, Michel Frutschi in 1982.
And then there are two big zeros still waiting to be erased: Türkiye and Colombia.
With Toprak Razgatlioglu and David Alonso, 2027 could open a new chapter.
Because there is one final statistic that shows just how much MotoGP has changed:
the last premier-class victory by a bike without Brembo components dates back more than 31 years.
Now the question is a different one:
which country will be the next to enter the list?