Collaboration with a Japanese brand is not unfamiliar territory for Pramac Racing. Pramac boss Paolo Campinoti had contributed to two MotoGP victories 20 years ago. “We had won two MotoGP races with Makoto Tamada on Honda in 2004 in Rio and Motegi“, says Campinoti. At the time there was a joint venture with Sito Pons’ Honda MotoGP teamwho was the owner of the team. Only in 2005 did Campinoti manage to secure a place in MotoGP. And he began his long-term relationship with Ducati Corse, becoming the first satellite team of the Borgo Panigale brandwhich entered the premier class in 2003 with Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss.
Pramac boss Campinoti remembers his first year of MotoGP with Ducati with a slight smile. “It was 2005 and Ducati’s third season in the MotoGP World Championship. We only had one rider in the team and a joint venture with team owner Luis d’Antin, our rider was Roberto Rolfo. We also had to accept running on Dunlop tires – the Italian recalled – So we had all the ingredients to fail…“.
Now, after 20 years with Ducati, Pramac has the opportunity to return to collaborate with a Japanese motorcycle brand. Thanks to “concessions”, the official Yamaha team recently achieved several respectable successes in the spring of 2024 thanks to Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo, although bad luck prevented the great result several times.
Paolo Campinoti showed his disappointment towards Ducati at the Mugello GP. Since Ducati decided to promote Marc Márquez to the Lenovo team, its top rider Jorge Martin (runner-up in MotoGP in 2023, world championship leader in 2024) kept his promises and signed for an official team: Aprilia Racing .
So Campinoti had to accept losing Jorge Martin and Marc Márquez, who should have taken over from Pramac if Martin had obtained the contract with Lenovo and who would have significantly lightened Pramac’s budget in a moment of economic difficulty with its sponsors. Now Pramac Racing will have a new lineup with Fabio Di Giannantonio (if VR46 does not exercise the option by the end of July) or Franco Morbidelli and Fermin Aldeguer if Campinoti remains in Ducati.
Pramac failed to attract the intrepid Enea Bastianini, a four-time MotoGP winner in 2022 with Gresini’s Ducati, who preferred to ride for the 2025 KTM Factory Tech3 team rather than for Pramac. “Beast” and his manager Carlo Pernat have experienced two and a half years of sometimes rather difficult moments with the Ducati management. We remember some ruthless battles against Bagnaia, for example at Sepang 2022, which Dall’Igna & Co didn’t like.
Opponents, such as Aprilia and KTM, have been annoyed for three years now because Ducati supplies three customer teams and thus constantly expands its supremacy, celebrating 16 victories out of 20 races in 2023 and occupying the top three places in the riders’ championship with Bagnaia , Martin and Bezzecchi. Ducati riders currently occupy the first four places in the rider standings. In the 2024 season the Desmosedici will win their fifth consecutive constructors’ title.
Now Ducati could lose one of the three satellite teams. Above all, Aprilia and KTM objected to the number of Ducati teams on the starting grid in 2023. Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia Racing, said that there should be a maximum of two private teams like in Formula One, unless all other teams do not accept a larger number. Ducati’s rivals even talked about “cnegative oncessions“, such as the absence of a test team or a wild card for test rider Michele Pirro, because they already have eight bikes on the grid. But we operate in a free market, eqhen Honda dominated for years and supplied up to five customer teams, no one complained.
Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna, has talked for years about his ideal scenario: every official MotoGP team should provide a customer team. But logically, three years ago no team wanted Aprilia material and recently the interest of customer teams in Honda and Yamaha has been limited. If Pramac Racing were to switch to Yamaha, Dorna would be one step closer to its dream scenario.
Ducati Corse has hired and paid Pramac Racing riders for several years, thus also deciding their future. From November 2023 it had been decided that Fermin Aldeguer, last year’s top Moto2 rider, should remain with Pramac for the next two years. The move to Yamaha would mean that this option would no longer be available to Pramac: the two-year agreement with an option for 2027 concerns Ducati.
Franco Morbidelli was dropped by Yamaha at the end of 2023 after four disappointing years. Morbidelli, 2017 Moto2 World Champion, had surprised everyone in the 2020 season with three GP victories with Petronas-Yamaha and a fantastic second place in the World Championship. It’s predictable that Yamaha doesn’t want him back. But Morbido could find a place in the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Ducati team in 2025 – or remain with Pramac.
