Double Wins: 500/MotoGP - WSBK
Unlike the MotoGP, which started in 1949, the Superbike World Championship is a relatively recent competition, having begun only in 1988. Therefore, there have been 37 years in which both competitions took place, and only on 7 occasions has the same manufacturer won both the riders' title in the premier class (500/MotoGP) and that of the production-derived series (WSBK).
1989 Honda
In the second year of Superbike, the outcome was the same as in 1988: Fred Merkel became world champion with the Honda RC30 of team Rumi. He needed only 3 victories, fewer than Stéphane Mertens' 4 and Raymond Roche's 5, thanks to 10 podiums and 4 fourth places. In the 500, Eddie Lawson triumphed with the NSR500 from Erv Kanemoto's Rothmans team, thanks to a brilliant second half of the season in which he overtook Wayne Rainey, achieving 3 victories and 4 second places in the last 7 races.
1997 Honda
In the 500 class, Honda achieved a triple clean sweep: winning all 15 GPs held in 1997, earning 15 pole positions and 15 fastest laps. Mick Doohan stood out among the riders, having his best season ever: 12 wins and 14 podiums, with a 143-point advantage. The Superbike World Championship was more contested, but in the third-to-last round in Albacete, John Kocinski, riding the RC45 of the official team, gained important points over Carl Fogarty (Ducati), who had two retirements. The American clinched the title with a 58-point margin.
2002 Honda
Honda was again the main player in 2002. In MotoGP, Valentino Rossi's superiority made everything seem easy, while in Superbike there was a historic duel: Bayliss on Ducati won the first 6 races and another 6 in a row between May and July, with Colin Edwards on the VTR 1000 SP2 consistently finishing second. However, the American reversed the tide by winning the last 9 races and became champion by an 11-point margin. In MotoGP, Rossi won 10 of the first 12 races with the RC211V, then managed his lead to repeat the title he won the previous year with the 500.
2009 Yamaha
Valentino Rossi was also a co-author of Yamaha's first double win in 2009. In MotoGP, the two M1s won 10 races, but in the end, Jorge Lorenzo prevailed with a 45-point lead. Rossi secured his 9th and final championship, always relying on Brembo brakes. In Superbike, 2009 was the year of Yamaha's first title, thanks to rookie Ben Spies, who managed to fend off the Ducatis with the official R1, although he only surpassed Noriyuki Haga in the standings during Race 1 of the final round in Portimão.
2021 Yamaha
Yamaha had to wait until 2021 to win the Superbike title again. Toprak Razgatlıoğlu secured it by overcoming the challenge from Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki, despite both winning 13 races each and the Northern Irish rider having one more podium—30 against 29. In MotoGP, the three initial wins of the M1 made everything seem easy, but then Maverick Viñales lost his way. Only Fabio Quartararo remained, reaching the summer break with 4 wins. Despite winning only one of the last 9 races, he became the first Frenchman to win the premier class championship.
2022 Ducati
After 11 years of waiting, Ducati returned to being Superbike world champion. Thanks to Álvaro Bautista's brilliant season on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati Panigale V4R, he secured 16 victories, 13 fastest laps, and 31 podiums in 36 races, amassing a total of 601 points. The wait in MotoGP was even longer. Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia brought Ducati back to the top of the world, a position it hadn't held since 2007, when Casey Stoner was at the helm, with a memorable comeback: recovering 91 points from Quartararo, thanks to 5 wins and 8 podiums in the last 10 races.
2023 Ducati
The double triumph of Ducati in 2023 was decidedly easier, with the same riders. Riding the Panigale V4R, Bautista achieved the feat of winning 27 races, a record likely to remain unbroken. He totaled 628 points, another absolute record, as were the 23 fastest laps in the season. Bagnaia needed only 7 victories, but with 15 podiums, excluding the Sprints, a significant new addition in 2023. Pecco arrived at the final round in Valencia with a 21-point lead over Martin but took the last GP win. Among Italians, only Giacomo Agostini and Valentino had won two consecutive titles in the premier class.
And Brembo?
For the sake of completeness, in 6 of the 7 double wins mentioned above, Brembo was the supplier of the braking components for both riders who claimed the title. The only exception was in 1989; it was only from the following year that Honda began using Brembo. Since then, it has never stopped, first in 500 and then in MotoGP.