Aprilia has announced that current MotoGP points leader Jorge Martin has signed a multi-year agreement to leave Pramac Ducati and join the Aprilia Factory MotoGP squad next year.
It is now expected that Ducati will announce Marc Marquez as the Factory teammate of Pecco Bagnaia beginning next year. Enea Bastianini is rumored to leave Ducati for a position on the GASGAS team in 2025. Pedro Acosta will leave GASGAS and join the Factory KTM team next year as teammate to Brad Binder.
With Yamaha desperate to have a two-rider satellite team next year, it is now speculated that Gresini Racing may abandon Ducati and run Yamahas in 2025.
Of course, aside from the official announcement regarding Jorge Martin and Aprilia, as well as confirmation from KTM regarding Pedro Acosta, the rest remains speculation at this point and subject to official confirmation, which MD will publish at the appropriate time.
Here is a brief press release from Aprilia regarding the signing of Jorge Martin:
It could only be Jorge Martín the ideal rider to ensure continuity after the announcement of Aleix Espargaró’s retirement, who has always been Martín’s friend and mentor. Martín has signed a multi-year contract with Aprilia Racing starting in 2025, and the Team and the entire Piaggio Group welcome a rider who best represents the desire to establish himself at the top of MotoGP.
MASSIMO RIVOLA
“A path of unstoppable growth, Jorge is a building block to reach the goal we are all looking for with great hunger at Aprilia Racing. Thanks to Dr. Michele Colaninno for this opportunity, we spoke last night and without wasting any time we made the decision.”
Two year contracts. Marc does his deal and they can re-engage JM after Marc is done. Or get Acosta. Why all the angst?
Bastianini is going to KTM. I guess Ducati is growing tired of have so many winning riders. I wonder if they have a pit dog to sell to Honda and maybe all the umbrella girls will be with Yamaha next year. Of course water will be replaced with BRAWNDO.
“Of course water will be replaced with BRAWNDO.”
Holy F@*k…. that was funny Mick.
I love that movie although these days it appears closer to reality!
I couldn’t make it through the movie _when it came out_ because I was like “really this is basically now.”
I still use one of the lines from the Dr Lexus scene whenever I can however.
I don’t see MM as being much of a draw. He has the personality of a rock and races dirty much of the time. He might win on the factory bike or more likely he’ll take Peco out numerous times during the season making stupid overtakes.
Of course in 2 years time when the new regulations kick in all of this will be moot. Everyone will be starting fresh.
i called it last year…MM gets any seat he wants!!!
MM took a ride on the satellite team Duc to figure out if he actually likes a Duc, proves to himself (and all others…like he cares) that he is still an absolute all-star, and then takes what he wants.
I am stunned that JM is moving to Aprilia.
I really have to wonder what JM is like to work with after all.
I watched a story on JM and it was stated that he was arrogant, not a team player, and so forth but was making strides to improve his attitude.
I have to guess JM’s attitude is not as attractive as his lap times and points lead. Odd.
I have wonder if it was JM’s attitude (temper tantrum) that triggered a ‘poor/wreck less’ decision to leave Duc because he did not get his way. He had to know MM will only be a couple more years.
Sometimes I get wrapped up in the personality issues in racing. I generally cut some slack to these guys when I think about my decision making process at that age.
Marc is a singular talent. He brings a ton more options to Ducati than Martin. Its a shorter candle for sure.
Martin is hot but unless Aprilia can make bigger steps forward than Ducati does, this move takes Martin off of the Championship contender’s list. The Aprilia is a good bike but the Factory Ducati is the best bike without question and the only bike capable of winning the championship currently.
I think the Aprilia is a much better bike than it gets credit for. With a hungry rider like Martin that can get the most out of the machine, I suspect he will still be a title contender next year. Maverick, I think, showed a couple of times what the bike is cable of but lacks the consistency needed for the title chase.
Good points.
Agreed. Combine this with my remarks about Aprilia engineering earlier in the thread – we might see something happen here.
Jorge just oozes that he is petulant and compulsive. One week he sticks his finger in Ducati’s eye. Then, the next week he demands a factory seat and/or complains that he doesn’t have one. Aprilia is getting a very fast prima Donna.
It appears Martin decided any team that MIGHT choose Marquez over him didn’t have their heads on straight. Marquez may have a couple good years left in him… if he doesn’t crash and bang his head hard enough to reactivate his double-vision or some other injury… he ain’t 18 anymore. We went through the same “but but but he’s still competitive” song-and-dance with Rossi, and we all know how that worked out.
Ducati seemed to realize after losing Stoner, post-Rossi, and after convincing Lorenzo to go away before making the changes that allowed him to win races, that a cooperative model worked to develop a bike nearly any decent rider can be VERY good on. Marquez has admitted that at Honda, he rejected changes his team-mates would have benefitted from which didn’t make much difference for him. So perhaps much of the debacle the Honda is today can be laid at Marquez’ “me first” attitude, and Honda management’s pandering to him while not noticing the bike was becoming less and less rider friendly. Pedrosa was also convinced to go elsewhere, they ignored Crutchlow, so I don’t understand why Aleix thinks they’ll listen to him.
It may be that Dorna and new owner Liberty are putting pressure on the entire paddock to ensure Marquez remains “box office” until Acosta (or?) is crowned. Little things like Marques stopping and wiggling around on the line in front of Acosta and no long lap penalty. Bastianini even joked, “I passed Marquez and no penalty”, it’s that obvious.
So Ducati’s folly is Aprilia’s gain, we shall see if it was a mistake for either of them.
To Marquez’ credit, he is out-performing his like-equipped peers by a long margin, while Vale was clearly in decline when his performance began to come into question. Put Marquez on the same bike Pecco has and he wins, no question.
Where these two are more similar is in marketing power. Marquez isn’t the cultural phenomenon that Vale was but he’s easily the biggest celebrity in MotoGP now. He hasn’t won in a couple of years yet he’s the biggest story in the sport. That’s worth as much as wins, sometimes more. It is why Vale was able to hang on for so long.
All spot-on Dave.
I often wonder if some of the other riders would clean up and not look like adolescent stoners in their scraggy breads, if they could generate more of a following among the mostly fossils like myself here.
Rossi had a personality that showed though whatever he looked like. He was “cute” if you had to put a word to it. This whole deal with Marquez makes me puke until I am dehydrated unto death. I still think that he should have been banned long ago. But he seems to be popular.
For my part. Maybe Martin is a piece of work off the track. That’s his problem. Ducati will probably regret losing him. He is a pretty clean racer who earns his victories without making deliberate contact with other riders. I’m going to give this credit where it is due because few people would ever honestly give Marquez that credit.
In the end, MotoGP will be all about promoting Italian brands, with a whole lot of Spanish money, that very few of the people here actually buy. One of my three Ducatis is for sale by the way. I replaced it last fall and haven’t sold it yet. It is the first of the three bikes just like it that I have bought. It is a fantastic two up bike if you have a small and light wife with an iron backside. It has “that” engine. The 2004 bikes seem to have nicer camshafts IMO. And this is my 2004. It barks. Bark is good.
I tend to worry less about a rider’s appearance and their off-track attitude than their meshing with the team and their actions on-track. It was fun to know Marc’s Mom still made him make his own bed, but he seemed to have missed the “sharing” lessons in kindergarten. Even Dall’ignia admitted there were “marketing” considerations as well as “sporting” ones involved, and that Marquez is a “divisive” character.
Given past history was a Ducati consideration, Marquez and his entourage presented many headaches for the Honda team, from his father being told to butt-out and his manager interfering and miscalculating laps at Philip Island. That has apparently been ironed out, Marc makes his own decisions (mistakes?) now.
I find it detracts from the presentation when the commentators spend more time yakking about Saint Marquez than any other rider. They did the same with Rossi until the long-obvious dawned. Plus their near-joking about Marc’s “I’m going to follow you every session to get a tow” tactics. FFS, after 8 championships, he should be able to find his own way around any track on the schedule without a rabbit to gauge against. Yes, he’s recovered better than I expected, but he’s obviously over-riding the bike to do it. Thats what got him in crash-arama trouble on the Honda, as well as his inability to settle for a lower finish position than he thinks he deserves. In the race where he broke his arm, he could have settled of 2nd or 3rd, but no, he was gonna prove he was the Great Marc Marquez. Then he had to prove how great he was by coming back too early… multiple times.
The boy causes himself and those around him problems that don’t need to happen.
I know he wanted a factory seat but it appears the music stopped with only Aprilia with an empty chair to jump onto. Hope it works out for him. Personally I think it was a mistake. I hope he proves me wrong.
It’s an interesting situation. Ducati seems to be the engineering powerhouse, but if you read up on Aprilia’s they are pretty clever. They are the underdog but it’s not like forget-it. Kinda like Benetton when they were coming up vs McLaren/Ferrari at that point for example.
I also think JM made a mistep.
I wonder if he hasn’t just relegated himself, on an Aprilia, to the role of a Dovizioso to MM and/or Pecco.