until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Reigning MotoGP teams’ champion Pramac is poised to make its dramatic split with Ducati for 2025 official, ending a 20-year relationship to join Yamaha’s rebuilding project.
News that the switch will be confirmed imminently was first broken by Sky Italy. The Race understands that Pramac made its final decision on Wednesday and is likely to make the formal announcement at the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday.
BIG BOOST FOR YAMAHA
Though Pramac has another year on its Ducati contact, rumours of a move away began circulating before the 2024 season even started, with Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis stating at the factory team’s launch at the Sepang pre-season test that Pramac was one of its prime targets.
It comes amid Yamaha’s vocal desire to expand its grid presence, something that has been seen as a key component in returning its M1 to championship-winning ways after a difficult three seasons since Fabio Quartararo won the title in 2021.
Yamaha has only been represented by its two factory bikes since RNF switched to Aprilia for 2023. Every other manufacturer has at least one satellite team and Ducati - before losing Pramac - had three.
Showing Quartararo it was serious about doing what it needed to do to improve the bike meant Yamaha was able to retain his services for a further two years. Doubling the amount of data it’s getting by regaining its two satellite spots will be another important component in that recovery.
HOW DUCATI LOST PRAMAC
But, with Pramac enjoying close links to Ducati that stretch back over two decades, it wasn’t seen as an easy task, especially with Paolo Campinoti’s team currently leading the riders’ championship standings with Jorge Martin.
Ducati’s rider market machinations, though, seem to have given Pramac the motivation it needed to walk away, as it has not just Martin for next year but also missed out on the chance to sign Marc Marquez when Ducati ceded to his demands and promoted him to the factory team over Martin - who consequently completely walked away from Ducati and into the arms of Massimo Rivola at Aprilia.
Current VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi now joining Martin at Aprilia may well have been the final straw in convincing Pramac there was no way Ducati could now provide it with another title-calibre rider to replace the one it’s losing.
Coupled with the substantial financial offer that Yamaha is believed to have extended to Pramac as well, the decision to switch then becomes substantially easier to make. It’s believed its new M1 machinery will come free of charge, instead of at the multi-million euro leasing deal that Pramac’s currently on with Ducati.
Now that the machinery deal is done, the next step is to see what impact it has on the rider market - with there likely to be substantial repercussions given Yamaha’s differing desires to what Ducati needed.
THE RIDERS QUESTION
Had it stayed with Ducati, it’s been assumed that one of Pramac’s 2025 racers was likely to be Moto2 racer Fermin Aldeguer, who Ducati signed up on a factory deal off the back of his 2023 form before this season even started.
He’s now potentially set to land at Gresini to replace Marquez or at VR46 instead of Bezzecchi.
So there are two promising seats available on Pramac-run M1 machinery that might be more appealing to more experienced racers given Yamaha’s need for data and development.
That potentially opens the doors to names like Bezzecchi’s VR46 team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio (an Italian who might be promising to the team commercially), Trackhouse Aprilia rider Miguel Oliviera, or even 2020 world champion Joan Mir should his talks to remain with Repsol Honda come to nothing.
