After all the most important pawns on the market have been assigned, a few bikes remain to be sorted out for 2025, and the shortlist of names is getting smaller and smaller. VR46 has chosen Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli, opening the doors of Gresini Racing wide to Fermin Aldeguer. All 6 Ducatis are thus assigned, while there are two Aprilias and two Yamahas that still do not have a rider.
Pramac will have to start from scratch and is aiming to hire experienced riders, because Yamaha currently needs this above all to improve. The first name on the list seems to be that of Miguel Oliveira, who at the Sachsenring also picked up the endorsement of Fabio Quartararo. The Portuguese rider seems like the perfect profile for Campinoti’s team; he has won in MotoGP, has a lot of experience by now, and even if the results of the last two seasons have not been brilliant, everyone in the paddock recognizes his talent.
As for the second Yamaha, however, in Pramac they would like to focus on a young rider to grow, someone who can be considered a future prospect for the Iwata manufacturer. Potential candidates with this profile are actually pretty hard to find, in Moto2 there are interesting youngsters but Campinoti would like an Italian also for sponsor reasons. Already the fact of moving from Ducati to Yamaha is a small problem, since the Tuscan team is unlikely to be able to aspire to the podium in the first season, so at least it is necessary to please the paymasters with a name sellable on the target market.
Tony Arbolino’s odds have gone up after his last performances, which have been convincing. Tony is class of 2000, he is young and no doubt has the potential to improve a lot. He would be a logical choice, but there is also a more romantic option for Pramac called Andrea Iannone. It will be really difficult, but Campinoti said he would love to have Andrea test the M1, only that the modalities of this test remain quite complex to understand.
Iannone, a romantic and complex idea for Pramac.
Campinoti will in fact be a Yamaha man from 2025 onwards, for now any decision on this is solely up to Yamaha. So on the one hand there is Pramac that would like to dream of hiring Iannone, a rider beloved by Campinoti. On the other side there is a manufacturer that perhaps has no interest in organizing a test that would probably be followed by the test team that deals with Cal Crutchlow. Kind of like what happened with Toprak in Jerez, just to be clear. In all of this, it would need the okay of GoEleven and maybe even Ducati. In short, it seems to us a rather complex scenario.
However, there are at least two other profiles in Moto2 that are interesting for Yamaha, one is Sergio Garcia, the current standings leader. The other is Alonso Lopez, who was already approached by the Japanese manufacturer in 2023. In short, the game is open, but perhaps Arbolino’s passport will be an extra help to hope for a jump in the category.
In addition to Pramac’s two Yamahas, however, there are also Trackhouse’s two Aprilias to sort out. Davide Brivio might have wanted to keep both Oliveira and Fernandez, as stated by the person concerned at Sachsenring. But the Portuguese rider is given almost for certain in Pramac, so perhaps only Raul Fernandez will remain on the RS GP in 2025. Massimo Rivola has immense confidence in the talent of the Spaniard, who, let us remember, also found himself in front of everyone in the Barcelona Sprint this year, until he made a mistake. He is undoubtedly talented, maybe he needs to make a mental step that will come in the next races, when he will have the same bike as the other three Aprilia riders.
But alongside Fernandez? Trackhouse is the first American team in MotoGP, so it is natural to think of Joe Roberts. Incidentally, the rider had already been in contention for an Aprilia in MotoGP, but without coming to an agreement. Many think that the passport is crucial, but Brivio will want to have a prominent lineup, and we are not sure that with Roberts and Fernandez it will be possible to concretize as much as hoped.
Into this scenario comes Jack Miller, who has in fact been hung up to dry by KTM in a fairly indelicate manner, at least according to the rider. The Australian is a disappointment for the Austrian manufacturer, the results have not arrived, but everyone at KTM has given him credit for providing very useful feedback to improve the RC16 thanks to his experience gained in Ducati. Miller may not have found the confidence he had hoped for with the RC16, but without a doubt he remains a rider with very high potential, a good track record and is still one of the few riders on the grid who can boast Grand Prix wins.
The summer break that separates us from the Silverstone round will be useful to arrange the last pieces, Mir and Rins should remain where they are continuing to hope for an improvement in Honda and Yamaha. Perhaps Oliveira’s confirmation at Pramac will be enough to trigger a series of subsequent fits and starts, just as it happened with Marquez’s arrival in Ducati Factory, the move that created the domino effect that is now getting smaller.
