It’s additional testomony to Aprilia’s progress in recent times that Maverick Vinales’ defection to Tech3 for 2025 instantly made his present, to-be-vacated experience probably the most enticing vacation spot on the MotoGP market – and that Aprilia clearly didn’t need to work very lengthy or laborious for one more confirmed winner to return on board.
However Marco Bezzecchi making the transfer from VR46 Ducati, as logical as it’s, does create extra ripple results in a foolish season that seems to be winding down however has room for one more twist or two.
Here is our view of the most important penalties of Bezzecchi’s promotion.
VR46 slot opens up for Morbidelli
Franco Morbidelli has not had fun in MotoGP since his 2020 emergence as a star – however he has by no means actually felt beneath main menace to drop off the grid, given his standing as VR46’s unique success story and the actual fact Valentino Rossi nonetheless certainly has sufficient pull within the paddock to make sure Morbidelli finds a spot someplace.
However now, with Bezzecchi vacating a spot at Rossi’s crew, Morbidelli looks like the apparent alternative for him.
There’s in all probability nonetheless a situation wherein Morbidelli stays at Pramac, given he is lastly displaying flashes of velocity on the Ducati after his very compromised pre-season.
However the extra riders are taken off the board, the much less doubtless Pramac staying with Ducati feels given the dearth of accessible riders who might maintain the crew anyplace close to its present Jorge Martin-led heights in 2025. That profitable Yamaha supply can solely look extra tempting.
And, with Ducati’s rider ranks ever-depleted and the VR46 crew having lengthy indicated it will welcome Morbidelli with open arms when the time was proper, it looks like an ideal match.
The one different VR46 Academy rider who may very well be in play to switch Bezzecchi is Moto2’s Celestino Vietti, however his present intermediate-class kind suggests he will likely be a distant second precedence to checking out Morbidelli’s future.
Issues clear up for Di Giannantonio
Bezzecchi had dominated his present team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio (then at Gresini) after they had been MotoGP rookies on the identical equipment in 2022 respectively, and – for probably the most half – after they had been MotoGP sophomores, too.
However of their third yr collectively, regardless of them now being paired up at a VR46 construction you’d anticipate to be extra tailor-made in the direction of Bezzecchi, Di Giannantonio has been clearly forward.
Possibly Bezzecchi has had the marginally loftier highs this yr nonetheless. However Di Giannantonio has posted 9 top-seven finishes (throughout sprints and grands prix) to Bezzecch’s measly two, so it will not have been a large shock if Aprilia had gone the opposite manner with its determination for who will accomplice Martin.
But it surely hasn’t. What it has achieved is take away one other rider from the Ducati equation, making Di Giannantonio if not indispensable than no less than self-evidently invaluable within the buyer Desmosedici construction.
If Pramac stays, one way or the other, it’s just about unattainable to foresee a situation wherein Di Giannantonio will get left with out a Ducati. However even when Pramac goes, Di Giannantonio ought to have the ability to additional lengthen a MotoGP profession that appeared achieved and dusted a yr in the past, and achieve this in a very good place.
Both present crew VR46 or former crew Gresini will certainly have him.
It might rely on which of the 2 groups will get the Ducati factory-contracted Fermin Aldeguer – Gresini appears to have nearer industrial ties to Ducati, however VR46 was already eager on Aldeguer final yr.
However Aldeguer’s state of affairs may additionally open a path for Di Giannantonio to get factory-spec equipment for the primary time. Aldeguer’s supervisor Hector Faubel – you’ll know him as a former 125cc title contender with Aprilia – has lately confirmed to Mundo Deportivo that the 19-year-old shouldn’t be truly assured a manufacturing facility Ducati subsequent yr.
As an alternative, Ducati can place him on a GP24 or GP25 subsequent yr. Just for 2026 does it owe him the newest mannequin – chances are you’ll recognise this as the very same contractual association it had made with Pecco Bagnaia for his MotoGP debut.
But when Aldeguer begins off with a GP24, who ought to get the corresponding GP25? Proper now, there isn’t any extra deserving rider on the market than Di Giannantonio.
Trackhouse (and Aprilia) can get to work
Bezzecchi’s Aprilia deal removes the ultimate ‘good’ manufacturing facility seat from the market. Solely two at the moment are nominally accessible – Alex Rins’s at Yamaha and Joan Mir’s at Honda – and in line with Spanish Motorsport.com Mir’s going nowhere. Though there have additionally been seemingly conflicting recommendations Honda could also be earmarking a experience for Toprak Razgatlioglu if he desires to maneuver at MotoGP at any value.
Rins’s state of affairs seems surprisingly murkier, however each single satellite tv for pc crew that also has openings is in any case forward of the works Yamaha outfit within the standings, as a result of the M1 simply is not there but.
Now that Aprilia’s manufacturing facility line-up is sorted, Aprilia ought to – and possibly will – assist its satellite tv for pc squad Trackhouse maximise its 2025 roster.
In any case, Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola has already urged he’s each aligned with Trackhouse boss Davide Brivio on this matter and can no less than play some function within the choice course of – and he has made it clear he believes there are good choices with premier-class expertise in the marketplace.
In the end, Trackhouse may simply stand pat and determine Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez are nonetheless the trail ahead. It will not be an outrageous conclusion to attract from the present state of the market.
However the free agent pool shouldn’t be completely depleted. On the very least, if I had been Brivio, I might give my former Suzuki rider Rins a name to see if every part was easy with Yamaha and if there was any manner he would think about a reunion.
The opposite possibility is to go for the most effective accessible Moto2 expertise, which Trackhouse must be in a very good place to do whereas all of the Ducati groups are scrambling to determine which ones will nonetheless be Ducati groups subsequent yr.
That ‘greatest accessible expertise’, I’d argue, is not ‘USA synergy choose’ Joe Roberts – however championship chief Sergio Garcia.
