With the official renewal of Fabio Di Giannantonio and the arrival of Álex Márquez in Nadia Padovani's team, there are now 11 officially vacant positions in the premier class of the World Motorcycling Championship. Some of them, however, have sufficient indications of ownership
Gresini has fitted two more pieces into the MotoGP puzzle for the 2023 season. The team headed by Nadia Padovani announced on Sunday (26) that Álex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio will be the team's starters for the next championship, bringing to 11 the number of vacancies officially filled in the premier class of the World Championship.
In truth, only ten vacancies have been announced with pomp and circumstance. The 11th spot is for Johann Zarco. The Frenchman has not yet been made official at Pramac in 2023, but the Ducati dome has already publicly assured that the Frenchman will continue in the satellite team, under the same conditions they have today.
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Speaking of the home of Bologna, the factory team already has Francesco Bagnaia announced as a starter until 2024, but the spot next to him is the subject of dispute between Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martín. Until the beginning of the year, the seat would surely go to the Spaniard, but the Italian has managed to mess things up, even using a GP21, last year's bike.
Claudio Domenicali, Ducati's CEO, however, understands that both did not have the same opportunities, since the GP22, this year's prototype, did not start the championship in the best shape. In addition, the Spaniard spent part of 2022 suffering from an injury. Because of this, the decision was postponed and should only come out after the vacations.
Even so, the factory in Borgo Panigale guarantees: both will stay at Ducati, with equal salaries, equal bikes, and equal contracts. Who is not in the factory team with Pecco, will be in Pramac with Zarco.
The third satellite team of the Italian brand is VR46. The contracts of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi also come to an end in 2022, but so far there is no reason to imagine that the ties will not be renewed.
On the Yamaha side, Franco Morbidelli has already started the year with a contract for 2023, quite fortunate, since performance has been lacking. The Italian-Brazilian didn't get along with the new YZR-M1, and if it weren't for the agreement reached when replacing Maverick Viñales, perhaps the Rome-born rider would have more problems repositioning himself in the market.
Fabio Quartararo, on the other hand, took a little longer to renew, but he got the guarantees he wanted from Yamaha and has already signed until 2024. Besides a salary recognition not only for the title, but for the current superiority over his peers, the Frenchman from Nice also wanted the certainty that the Japanese will invest to have a stronger bike next year.
Another important detail is that Yamaha will not have a satellite team in 2023. RNF has switched from the Japanese to Aprilia, which directly impacts Darryn Binder. The South African today has a Yamaha contract for one year plus one. That is, the deal is for 2022, but has the option to be renewed for 2023. Even if he makes a huge leap in performance when he returns from vacation, the tuning fork team has no way of executing this option.
The youngest of the Binder brothers, however, has not yet been ruled out by the RNF, but the fact is that Razlan Razali's team has become one of the most attractive on the grid, precisely because of the good moment of the RS-GP. After an approach with Gresini, Miguel Oliveira now negotiates to be a starter for the team, which also has Raúl Fernández among the candidates. Some rumors even talk about promoting Moto2 leader Celestino Vietti, but the team boss has guaranteed that the sponsors are not interested in an Italian rider.
The Noale factory team, however, is already closed: Aleix Espargaró will continue alongside Maverick Viñales next year. After all, there is no reason to change what has been working well.
At KTM, Brad Binder opened the year already guaranteed, with a contract until 2024, and recently saw the Austrians confirm the signing of Jack Miller, who arrives from Ducati to ride for the third different brand in MotoGP.
On the satellite team side, however, the scenario is much more complicated. Pit Beirer, the team boss, has already assumed that the line-up of Raúl Fernández and Remy Gardner for Hervé Poncharal's squad did not work out. Still, the manager left the door ajar for the continuation of the Australian, despite the difficult relationship with the agent of Wayne's son.
Raúl, however, seems more and more distant from the team. The most quoted for his place is Pol Espargaró, who may return to the team after the wreck of his Honda adventure. For his place, the Japanese brand has Joan Mir as the most quoted. Marc Márquez, despite all the suffering of recent years, has a contract until 2024 and is eagerly awaited back after the fourth surgery on his right arm.
The 2020 champion had been forwarding a renewal with Suzuki and had decided to stay with the team, but the decision of the Hamamatsu-based outfit to abandon the premier class at the end of the year forced the Spaniard to look for a new address.
Like Mir, Álex Rins' destiny also involves Honda. The official announcement has not yet come, but the Spaniard has already confirmed that it is he who will take Álex Márquez's place at LCR. Takaaki Nakagami's place, on the other hand, is not secure either.
The Japanese rider is contracted directly by HRC, but the lack of results in recent years has led to questions about the continuity of this link. Even so, the sequence is not totally ruled out. Moto2's Ai Ogura, however, is also a candidate.
The oldest rider on the current grid, Andrea Dovizioso is the earliest to leave the grid. The Italian has been unable to rediscover the good performance that marked the last years of his time with Ducati and must leave the World Championship to start a project in motocross.
MotoGP 2023, Provisional grid:
MotoGP is now on vacation and will be back in action on August 7, with the British GP at Silverstone.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.