Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia is increasingly close to joining Aprilia for the 2027 MotoGP season, according to reports. Ducati have been closing in on the signing of Pedro Acosta for weeks.
But it has now emerged that Bagnaia had the option to stay on Ducati, just not on his desired terms. His departure won’t be entirely involuntary.
Aprilia have been battling Yamaha for Bagnaia, and it seems the Italian outfit have ‘come from behind’ to win the race. Massimo Rivola needs a replacement for Jorge Martin, who is himself bound for Yamaha.
Rate the Francesco Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi line-up at Aprilia out of 10
Bagnaia is the only rider in Ducati history to win multiple MotoGP titles, but a perplexing and dismal 2025 season has effectively ended one of the longest relationships on the grid.
Francesco Bagnaia could have stayed at Ducati if he accepted a pay cut
According to MOW, Ducati offered Bagnaia ‘the possibility of a renewal’ as long as he accepted a ‘substantial reduction in his salary’. It has long been clear that Marc Marquez will net a major pay rise after joining the team on a cut-price deal.
Perhaps Ducati simply couldn’t afford to keep paying Bagnaia his current wage in light of Marquez’s salary hike, or maybe they couldn’t justify the expense on the back of 2025.
If you were Francesco Bagnaia, would you pick Aprilia’s bike or Yamaha’s money?
Either way, while the doors to Ducati weren’t ‘explicitly closed’, Bagnaia felt they were ‘anything but open’. The ‘implicit message’ was that they no longer truly valued his services.
As such, Bagnaia’s dilemma wasn’t whether he should leave Ducati, but which team he should join.
Why Pecco Bagnaia is choosing Aprilia over Yamaha
Yamaha offered Bagnaia a much higher salary than Aprilia, but despite his aforementioned stance on renewing with Ducati, it’s not about the money for the 29-year-old.
In a competitive sense, Aprilia look like a better bet than Yamaha right now, even if the upcoming regulation changes could change the pecking order.
Rivola made a ‘sentimental’ appeal to Bagnaia about forming an all-Italian team with arguably the nation’s two best riders. Marco Bezzecchi, a fellow VR46 academy graduate, has already extended his contract at Noale.
It looks like the Aprilia boss has got through to his top target. Rivola was the first high-profile MotoGP insider to publicly predict that Ducati would sign Acosta, so these plans have clearly been in motion for a while.
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