What’s going on? An interesting 2025 season is shaping nicely…
Story: Donovan Fourie
This Silly Season is looking particularly silly. That’s a line that has been used before. In fact, it gets used most years when rider contract tomfoolery is afoot.
This year is no exception.
The biggest race of 2024 is partially the championship that looks increasingly like it will go down to Pecco Bagnaia on the Factory Ducati Team and Jorge Martin on the not-so-factory Pramac team, but a factory Ducati bike. But it seems the next big race is for a Factory Ducati Team seat.
Pecco Bagnaia, so far is doing what he has been doing the past two seasons – screwing up a bit at the beginning of the year and causing everyone to start doubting him before putting together some incredible rides and then taking the championship.
Enea Bastianini, the other Factory Ducati rider, has fared less well this year after showing astounding pace two years ago on the neither-factory-team-nor-factory-bike Gresini Ducati.
Last year, his much anticipated season as a factory rider was stunted by an injury at Portimao after a collision with VR46 rider Luca Marini. Since then, the guy just hasn’t got it together. He had a good showing at the last race at Mugello, finishing second behind his teammate and pulling off a spectacular last-corner pass on championship leader Jorge Martin
But one good race doesn’t butter enough parsnips, unfortunately, and Bastianini is getting the snip from the team.
And so, on to the big race between Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin for the most coveted seat in MotoGP. It was a tough choice for Ducati. Marquez is an eight-time world champion and having him aboard brings a wealth of experience, a huge fan base and, of course, a talented rider.
Marquez made the shock move from his long-time home at Honda to the Gresini satellite Ducati team this year and is yet to win a race, although he has seen a host of podium finishes made even more impressive by him being the top-finishing Ducati GP23 (the 2023 model Ducati race bike that the smaller teams ride while the Factory Team and Pramac use shiny new GP24 bikes) by miles. Imagine what he could do with the latest equipment, Ducati no doubt thought.
However, Marquez is now firmly in his thirties and was famously the victim of a host of injuries that nearly saw his career come to a premature end. How long does he have left, especially as another big highside could bring his riding career to a dramatic end?
Step forward, Jorge Martin. He is 26 years of age, old enough to have some wisdom in that noggin of his while his bones are still sufficiently made of rubber to avoid crumbling to dust in the next big tumble. Despite not being in the Factory Team, Martin is currently leading the championship and is still very much in contention to take the honours in November.
Would Ducati take the old master or the new blood? Most of the big bets were on the latter – Martin has become a Ducati stalwart and warned that should the Bologna factory not give him a Factory seat, he would offer his services elsewhere. Marquez, on the other hand, seemed happy to receive only the latest bike even if not in the Factory Team. Surely, prevalent logic dictated, Martin would get the seat next to Bagnaia and Marquez would get the latest bike in another team? Ducati would get the best of both worlds. Or so we thought…
The first big clue to the contrary came when Autosport Magazine published an article claiming Marquez had been given the Factory ride. It was a bold claim and had no support from official channels. We have seen this sort of thing before where media publish rumours as fact in pursuit of the clicks they so desperately desire. Was it true, though?
The answer came a couple of hours later, not from Ducati but rather, strangely, Aprilia.
Before the Mugello round, we were treated to the somewhat shocking announcement that Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro would be hanging up his leathers at the end of the season in favour of riding his bicycle and being a family man. That left a free spot on the other Italian team.
So, a couple of hours after Autosport made a perhaps dubious claim that Marquez was taking the Ducati hot seat, Aprilia announced that they had signed none other than Jorge Martin to a two-year deal on its Factory Team.
That just leaves one man for the Ducati job – Marc Marquez.
Lo and behold – this morning confirmation came through that Marquez got that seat.
We think 2025 is going to be interesting. If Marquez has a ninth title in him, next year is his best chance.
Straight after the Aprilia announcement, the Tech 3 Team, who this year are running KTMs painted in Gas Gas colours, announced that the man vacating the Ducati seat, Enea Bastianini, would be joining their ranks. That teaming should work well – Tech 3 are an easygoing, supportive team and Bastianini’s amiable personality should fit in there nicely.
With the Ducati puzzle out of the way, we look to the other seats in the paddock. Pedro Acosta, understandably, is moving from Tech 3 to the Red Bull KTM Factory Team replacing Jack Miller. Rumours were rife that Binder would be losing his seat to either Marquez, or Martin, or even Bastianini, despite Binder’s manager making it clear that the South African has a contract that specifies Red Bull KTM until 2025. With everyone suspected of taking his job now gainfully employed elsewhere, Binder’s seat looks as safe as his contract depicts…
2025 MotoGP rider line-up so far… | ||
Rider | Team | Contract |
Pedro Acosta | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | Multi-year contract’ |
Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha contract, end of 2026 |
Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati contract, end of 2026 |
Jorge Martin | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia contract, 2025 and 2026 |
Luca Marini | Repsol Honda Team | Honda contract, end of 2025 |
Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM contract, end of 2026 |
Johann Zarco | LCR Honda Castrol | Honda contract, end of 2025 |
Fermin Aldeguer | Team TBA | Ducati contract, 2025 and 2026. Option for two further years. |
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Contracted until the end of 2024 | ||
Rider | Team | Contract |
Alex Rins | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha contract, end of 2024 |
Enea Bastianini | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati contract, end of 2024 |
Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia Racing | Retiring at end of 2024 |
Maverick Vinales | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia contract, end of 2024 |
Joan Mir | Repsol Honda Team | Honda contract, end of 2024 |
Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM contract, end of 2024 |
Marc Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Gresini contract, end of 2024 |
Alex Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Gresini contract, end of 2024 |
Franco Morbidelli | Prima Pramac Racing | Ducati contract, end of 2024 |
Fabio di Giannantonio | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | VR46 contract, end of 2024 |
Marco Bezzecchi | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | VR46 contract, end of 2024 |
Miguel Oliveira | Trackhouse Racing | Aprilia contract, end of 2024 |
Raul Fernandez | Trackhouse Racing | Aprilia contract, end of 2024 |
Pedro Acosta | Red Bull Tech3 GASGAS | KTM contract, end of 2024 |
Augusto Fernandez | Red Bull Tech3 GASGAS | KTM contract, end of 2024 |
Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda Idemitsu | Honda contract, end of 2024 |
