By Joe Tatulli
MotoGP Update – 2025 Teams
For those of you who enjoy MotoGP racing, and even for those that don’t, or don’t know much about it at all; we all get the concept of teams. A team, as defined by Dictionary.com, is 1 a number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest: a football team. 2 a number of persons associated in some joint action: a team of advisers. Okay. Got it?
Well for MotoGP the second definition sorta’ works. For this very exclusive club of riders the word team means: this super fast guy and that super fast guy are still competing against each other, but they just happen to be in the same box, and are supported by either an independant or factory sponsor. Each rider does have a technical team that includes the Crew Chief (also known as the Race Engineer), the Chief Mechanic and several other mechanics, the Chief Engineer, the Data Manager, etc. There may also be other bodies in the garage at any given time like the rider’s wife or girlfriend, the team principal/s (the person or persons who finance the team or a large part of it, or a factory representative), a close friend, celebrity, or even a parent.
In this case (the 2025 Teams) there are eleven teams each with two riders. You can see the 2025 Teams and riders here: Click Here for 2025 MotoGP Teams.
With that short backgrounder in mind; there have been some major changes to the teams in 2025. Last year Ducati had eight bikes on the grid. This year they will have only six. One of the reasons for that decision is in 2027 all the bikes from all the factories (Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, and Yamaha) will be a smaller bore 850cc machine (more on that later in the year). Developing this engine and all that goes around it (chassis, electronics, suspension, brakes, aero, etc.) is expensive and time consuming, hence the reduction from eight to six. Yamaha ran two factory bikes last year. This year they will be running an additional team of two riders on a satellite team sponsored by Prima Pramac. Last year Prima Pramac ran two Ducati machines.
The biggest changes regard the rider moves. Instead of picking up 2024 World Champion Jorge Martin (89) for the Lenovo Factory Team from the Prima Pramac team, Ducati signed eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez (93). Now Marquez isn’t over the hill at 31, and he has won the big prize eight times, so he could be a great choice. He will share the garage with two time World Champion Pecco Bagnaia (63). Martin left Ducati for the Aprilia Factory Team where he will join former Pertamina Enduro VR46 Team (Ducati) racer Marco Bezzecchi (72). Ducati will also be supporting the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Team with the new GP25 bike. Fabio Digiantonio (49), who was on the 2024 team, will be joined by Franco Morbidelli (21), who was in the Prima Pramac garage with Jorge Martin. Yamaha will sport two teams this year. As 2024 wound down Monster Energy Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo (20) was gaining ground both in qualifying and race results. He will be joined by Alex Rins (42). The new Yamaha team, Prima Pramac Yamaha, signed Miguel Oliveira (88) formerly with Aprilia, and Jack Miller (43) formerly with KTM, to fill out their new roster.
I know this is getting into the weeds a bit but it is always interesting to understand the politics of the teams, the competitive fires that will burn, and, at the end of the day, which moves prove to be wise and which are pure folly.
The first race weekend of the 2025 season is scheduled for the Chang International Circuit in Thailand February 28-March 2, 2025. I can’t wait.
It’s 2025… where will you be headed this year?
This is the season to start planning for the upcoming riding season. Conventional wisdom says the obvious choices include the MOA National Rally in Lebanon, TN, June 19-21, 2025, and the RA National Rally in Athens OH, August 28-31, 2025 (which is the Labor Day weekend with Labor day being Monday September 1, 2025). I’m sure some of our members will be on hand for one or both of these traditional annual events. I’ve been to a few of these events over the years myself, and have enjoyed riding to the rally, riding the local roads near the rally, and usually blasting home after the rally. The rallys themselves, at least the ones with lots and lots of vendors, are great for about half-a-day, and the Friday or Saturday night meal at a local restaurant with ten to twenty rider friends is great fun. But not being a camper post rally finds me in a nice comfy hotel room a few miles from the rally site, and that’s where I usually head after exploring the local roads for the better part of the day. The camping crowd end up back at the rally site where there is food (if you can call corn dogs and cotton candy food), a beer tent or two, and the vendors, not to mention hundreds of other campers, several of whom can be found riding around the rally grounds in full adventure gear covered with mud, standing on the pegs of their fully equipped, ready for a two year jungle or mountain trail journey, monstrous R1200 or R1250 GS. You know who you are.
Anyway I’m sure there will be a few guys who will do some track days or other training events, and hopefully someone creative will come up with some great ride ideas for an after a Tuesday breakfast ride in the spring or summer. Always good to have something to look forward to.