Cameron Beaubier is finally leaving MotoAmerica for the world stage, with reports putting the American in the Moto2 paddock, with the aptly named American Racing team.
Roadracing World was the first to report the news, and our own sources have confirmed Beaubier’s move from the US championship to grand prix racing.
There is a bit of a shakeup in the factory Ducati WorldSBK squad happening right now, as Michael Ruben Rinaldi has been named teammate to Scott Redding for the 2021 season.
This means that Chaz Davies is departing the factory squad, while the team is also sees its name change to “Aruba.it Racing Ducati” for next year.
American motorcycle racing fans will continue to have a countryman to cheer for in the 2021 WorldSBK Championship, as Garrett Gerloff has seen his contract with the GRT Yamaha squad renewed for next season.
The news comes off an strong race weekend in France, as Gerloff topped the timesheets in FP2, qualified fifth, and fought for a podium during Race 1, which left an impression on the SBK paddock.
This result added to his already noteworthy time at Catalunya, where he scored his first WorldSBK podium, likely made retaining Gerloff an easy choice for Yamaha’s racing program.
As Pecco Bagnaia let slip at Barcelona on Sunday night, Ducati today announced their rider line up for the 2021 season, in both the factory team and the Pramac squad.
As expected, there were no surprises: Pecco Bagnaia gets a promotion to the factory team alongside Jack Miller, while Johann Zarco is promoted to the Pramac team, where he will be partnered with current Moto2 rider Jorge Martin.
Bagnaia had been expected to get the nod over Zarco after a string of strong performances since his return from injury.
The deal is done at last. Today, the Petronas Yamaha SRT team has announced that Valentino Rossi will partner Franco Morbidelli in 2021.
Rossi has signed a one-year extension of his contract with Yamaha, to race in the Petronas Yamaha SRT team.
Tom Sykes will spend a third season with the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK racing team, signing a one-year deal with the German outfit this week.
He will be joined in the garage by Michael van der Mark, who will take his first season on the BMW S1000RR next year.
The re-signing of Sykes is no surprise, though the real news here might be the shifting of Michael van der Mark from the Yamaha squad to the BMW outfit.
Desmo Dovi is no more. The eight-year partnership between Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati Corse will come to an end when the flag falls after the last race of the 2020 MotoGP season.
The news was made official by Dovizioso’s manager Simone Battistella, after a final meeting with Ducati management to try to agree terms. Battistella told broadcaster Sky Italia that they had been unable to find common ground to continue.
It was a busy day for MotoGP rider announcements, this Monday. Three riders were confirmed in teams, with a fourth confirmed as leaving. The announcements were hardly a shock, but there was room for the odd raised eyebrow or two.
At Honda, there was the expected reshuffling to make room for Pol Espargaro in the Repsol Honda squad, the Spaniard offered a two-year deal alongside Marc Marquez. This bumped Alex Márquez down to the LCR Honda team, with a two-year contract as compensation.
Alex Márquez may have lost his ride in the factory team before a wheel has turned in the 2020 MotoGP season, but at least he is now assured of three seasons in the premier class to prove himself.
If there was a surprise in the announcements, it was that Cal Crutchlow was being released to make room for Alex Márquez.
The Englishman has been a valuable asset in the development of the Honda RC213V, his feedback highly rated, and he is a firm favorite in the LCR squad, bringing a lot of media exposure to the satellite team.
As the MotoGP Championship gears up for its first race of the 2020 season this coming weekend, we get a bevy of announcements from Jerez, Spain.
The first item is that Franco Morbidelli will be continuing with the Petronas Yamaha squad, signing a two-year contract with the satellite Yamaha team. This surprised no one.
More surprising was the silence about the future of Valentino Rossi, as the Italian is expected to announce his move to the Petronas Yamaha garage this week. However, The Doctor may have held his tongue because of the news that was coming from the Honda contingency.
Confirming the paddock rumors, HRC announced that it had signed Pol Espargaro to the Repsol Honda squad on a two-year deal, thus displacing Alex Marquez from the factory-backed team before the Spaniard had turned a single racing wheel with the Japanese manufacturer.
In a surprise move, reigning WorldSSP champion Randy Krummenacher has announced that he is splitting with the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team with immediate effect.
The Swiss rider gave only vague reasons for the split. In a press release, he blamed “serious breaches on the part of the company that compromise both the rider’s performance as well as his professionalism, reputation, and personal integrity.”
It appears that the deal is done. Italian media, including La Gazzetta dello Sport and GPOne.com, are reporting that Valentino Rossi has reached agreement with Yamaha for a new two-year deal to race in the Petronas Yamaha squad.
The deal is to be announced during the weekend of the first MotoGP round once it resumes at Jerez next weekend.
The deal will initially be for 2021, with an option to extend the contract for a second year to 2022. Rossi will take a seat in the Petronas Yamaha squad alongside VR46 protege Franco Morbidelli, who should also be announcing a new contract soon.