Marc Marquez arriving in the factory Ducati garage and MotoGP’s historic satellite rider world champion Jorge Martin finally getting a works seat but at Aprilia are the headline moves of a wild line-up rejig for 2025.
Thirteen new partnerships begin on track at Barcelona on Tuesday as MotoGP holds its traditional post-season test that’s actually the first test of the following championship campaign as everyone switches to their new employers and starts sussing each other out.
The immediate goals for the new combinations vary wildly. Here’s what we think they need to target and prove they made the right choices for 2025.
NEW FACES, NEW COLOURS 🔀
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 18, 2024
This is how #MotoGP2025 looks like 👀
Tune in tomorrow for the #BarcelonaTest to get a feel for it 🔜 pic.twitter.com/1qgFKdEUxi
Jorge Martin + Aprilia
The move: Spurned by the works Ducati team yet again, this time in favour of Marquez, Martin immediately signed for Aprilia - and he’ll take the #1 plate with him.
2025 target: Be at least a long-shot title contender
Given Aprilia’s slide away from the front as 2024 progressed, the narrative has been that Martin’s switching from the title fight to the midfield.
But hang on. The Aprilia RS-GP was still the only bike that denied Ducati a race win in 2024. In the retiring Aleix Espargaro’s hands it was only 5.8 seconds from victory in the season finale once away from the hot temperatures in which it floundered across the flyaways.
🆕 teammates spotted together!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 18, 2024
A very first taste of 2025 for @ApriliaOfficial’s all-new line-up 🤩#MotoGP #MotoGP2025 pic.twitter.com/V5hVG4NFHz
It’s not kept pace with Ducati’s gains, it’s not solved all its problems as quickly as it needed to. But it’s still often been MotoGP’s second-best bike and it’s just signed the best rider it’s ever had.
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Martin didn’t pick Aprilia because he wanted to take on a project. He picked Aprilia because it was the next-best factory option once Ducati’s works seats were closed off.
On that basis, race wins are the very least he should be targeting in 2025.
Marc Marquez + Factory Ducati
The move: Firmly reassured by his early races on Gresini’s year-old Ducati that he could still win in MotoGP. Marquez made sure he had the latest-spec bike for 2025 - which means joining Pecco Bagnaia in a works superteam.
2025 target: Win the world championship.
There’s no other reason to make this move. Swapping the 2023 Ducati for the 2025 version shouldn’t be anything like as big an acclimatisation process as swapping a Honda for a Ducati was. Yes, Bagnaia is very well established in that team but Bagnaia’s fresh from a title defeat.
📦 ✅ @marcmarquez93 successfully delivered to @ducaticorse!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 18, 2024
May the 'Marcdozzi' saga in red officially begin! 🤝❤️#SolidarityGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/HOxULHtO3d
And if insiders’ suggestions of the size of the GP23’s laptime deficit to the GP24 this year are accurate, then what Marquez has achieved on an older bike suggests he might be unbeatable on a new one.
Enea Bastianini + Tech3 KTM
The move: Squeezed out of Ducati by Marquez’s arrival, Bastianini returns to the satellite ranks as part of KTM’s big line-up rejig, even though Aprilia was interested too.
2025 target: The odd race win - if KTM’s improved.
If KTM can close in on Ducati then it’s Pedro Acosta who you imagine leading the charge. But he wasn’t that far from winning for Tech3 in 2024, so its peaky but experienced new line-up should have similar hopes.
KTM's new line-up
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Vinales, Bastianini join KTM MotoGP roster for 2025
Bastianini’s time as a satellite underdog at Ducati was as brilliant as his time as a factory rider there was disappointing. This move could suit him, especially as he reunites with his old Gresini crew chief Alberto Giribuola.
Pedro Acosta + Factory KTM
The move: It took about a lap of Acosta’s MotoGP rookie season to demonstrate that he needed to be on a factory KTM as soon as possible. Now he is.
2025 target: Is a title bid totally out of the question?
The sight of Acosta miles ahead of the other KTMs despite being a rookie was so common in 2024 that it was easy to start taking it for granted.
Even with Brad Binder getting back on form and eventually pipping Acosta to the top non-Ducati spot in the championship, Acosta had an astounding debut season.
Add a full year’s experience and a full factory seat to all that talent and that attitude, and surely anything is possible - if the KTM’s up to it.
Maverick Vinales + Tech3 KTM
The move: Aprilia would’ve been happy to keep Vinales, but he preferred to look elsewhere once Martin arrived - though he said it was the RS-GP’s form fluctuations that prompted him to leave, not the team forgetting to tell him in advance that it had just signed Martin.
2025 target: A dominant win somewhere.
Having won with Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia, adding a triumph for a fourth manufacturer is probably the best Vinales can now aim for from his often brilliant, more often frustrating MotoGP career.
It would be no surprise at all to see him suddenly storm away from the field one day on the Tech3 KTM. And equally no surprise to see him running 16th the following week.
That said, the KTM move gives him a bike with a reputation for decent starts for the first time - will that make all the difference?
Franco Morbidelli + VR46 Ducati
The move: Mentor Valentino Rossi gives Morbidelli another MotoGP chance after Pramac’s switch to his old employer Yamaha ended his underwhelming time at the team.
2025 target: Earn a 2026 seat.
Morbidelli’s spent a lot of MotoGP seasons on borrowed time now, miles from his 2020 peak but always with enough reasons to wonder if it could still be accessed again.
The knee injury, Yamaha’s form collapse and in 2024 the serious pre-season head injury that meant his year with the best bike on the grid came with zero winter testing. He’s not been good enough for a while, but there have always been real mitigating factors.
If he’s not best 2024-spec Ducati in a straightforward 2025, though, then surely there can’t be any more chances.
MotoGP 2025 rider line-ups ranked from worst to best
Marco Bezzecchi + Aprilia
The move: Another long-time Ducati satellite star finally deciding he must have a factory seat even if it means going elsewhere, and consequently heading for Aprilia.
2025 target: Match Martin.
A very poor 2024 means far lower expectations for Aprilia’s ‘other’ big new signing. Yet in 2023 Bezzecchi was taking the title fight to Bagnaia and Martin on a year-old bike in only his second MotoGP season.
If he’s right that his 2024 slump was all down to the 2023-spec Ducati struggling with the 2024 Michelin tyres then actually he could fly again at Aprilia.
But the lingering feeling that he should’ve still got more out of his 2024 package means Bezzecchi arrives at Aprilia as the unofficial number two.
Jack Miller + Pramac Yamaha
The move: The phone wasn’t really ringing, in his own words, when Miller first lost his KTM seat for 2025. Then his old team Pramac called him up for its move to Yamaha.
2025 target: Help Yamaha, and remind the world what he can really do.
Despite those race wins at Ducati, Miller’s years as a factory MotoGP racer haven’t really lived up to the promise of his satellite days.
So maybe being back in the satellite ranks for a familiar team with a new project to dive into is ideal for Miller.
Though he’s mainly there to contribute to Yamaha’s progress back up the field, it would be good for Miller’s reputation if he also had chance to produce some of the underdog heroics of his Pramac Ducati stint too.
Miguel Oliveira + Pramac Yamaha
The move: Neither Oliveira and Trackhouse seemed hugely keen to stay together for 2025 so he’s off to Pramac for its new Yamaha mission.
2025 target: Stay fit, give plenty of useful development feedback.
Oliveira’s two years on Aprilias were basically wrecked by constant injuries and most of those were not his fault at all.
So this is a much-needed fresh start. But he also has a fair amount to prove.
Pramac + Yamaha
The move: Enticed by heavy financial incentives, the squad that redefined what’s possible for a satellite team abandons its title-winning Ducatis to help Yamaha recover.
2025 target: Lay some good foundations for Yamaha.
There’s no way to soften this: Pramac’s losing the champion rider and walking away from the best bike on the grid. It may well never get anywhere near the highs of 2023-24 again.
It’s in a much better position as a business with Yamaha, though, and will get full-factory support and equipment as the struggling firm tries to take full advantage of having four bikes on the grid again in its effort to return to the top of MotoGP.
Don’t expect much in the way of results in 2025, though. After two years trying to win the MotoGP itself, Pramac’s function now is really to help make sure Fabio Quartararo is the 2027 champion.
Ai Ogura + Trackhouse Aprilia
The move: Long-time Honda protege Ogura is actually going up to MotoGP with someone else after finally winning the Moto2 title, as Trackhouse made a wise move to grab him.
2025 target: Star on occasion.
This is quite a nice under-the-radar arrival in MotoGP for Ogura at a team that’s only shown fleeting good form in its current incarnation so far.
There’s no expectation that he’ll have a rookie season like Moto2 champion predecessor Acosta’s, and the odd top six appearance will feel like a successful starting point for a decent MotoGP career. Beating team-mate Raul Fernandez would be good for Ogura’s future too, given how highly Aprilia rates him.
Fermin Aldeguer + Gresini Ducati
The move: Teenager Aldeguer’s stunning late-2023 Moto2 form convinced Ducati to make a very early move for him and commit to giving him a 2025 MotoGP seat before the 2024 season even began. A patchy 2024 in Moto2 raised question marks about the wisdom of that.
2025 target: Prove Ducati right
The circumstances of Aldeguer’s arrival in MotoGP add a load of pressure, with every 2024 Moto2 stumble prompting doubts and the fact he’ll be taking Marc Marquez’s old seat hardly helping there (not that anyone at Gresini or Ducati is expecting anything like his predecessor’s form).
Conversely, a team like Gresini and a bike as good as the Ducati GP24 could be the ideal platform for a great rookie season - if everyone can forget the preconceptions they might’ve formed as Aldeguer’s 2024 went awry.
Somkiat Chantra + LCR Honda
The move: Mutual sponsor Idemitsu helps Thai racer Chantra onto the MotoGP grid in Taka Nakagami’s recently-vacated LCR Honda seat.
2025 target: Prove he belongs.
While Chantra’s shown plenty of potential in Moto2, it’s hard to be optimistic for his rookie season given the Honda is a far from rider-friendly bike right now and he’s arriving in MotoGP having actually taken a downturn in his final Moto2 season.
Moto2 hasn’t always been the greatest indicator of MotoGP potential in recent years, but most of the positive rookie surprises have come on better MotoGP bikes than Chantra is going to have.
