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As MotoGP’s silly season plays out, questions remain over just how Ducati will find a place for Fermin Aldeguer, the Spaniard who won the final four races of the 2023 Moto2 season (and five in total that year).
The Bologna marque proclaimed a multi-year contract with Aldeguer back in March – two years with an option for another two – without specifying at which team he will be placed.
Three months on, the questions about which team the 19-year-old will ride for remain, and now Jack Miller has become a factor.
There are currently four squads fielding Ducatis in MotoGP, namely the Ducati Team itself, Pramac Racing, the VR46 Racing Team, and Gresini Racing.
Thus far, though, only one of those has confirmed any riders at all for 2025, namely the factory team with two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia and six-time champion Marc Marquez.
Logically, Aldeguer would be expected to land at Pramac, which is losing Jorge Martin to Aprilia Racing anyway, except it is still flirting with a defection to Yamaha.
VR46 is expected to retain Fabio Di Giannantonio and is tipped to reunite with VR46 Academy graduate Franco Morbidelli, who would move from Pramac to take the seat vacated by Aprilia-bound Marco Bezzecchi.
Gresini looks likely to re-sign Alex Marquez and, as previously reported by Speedcafe, could well hand a MotoGP lifeline to Miller after he missed out on rides at KTM and apparently Honda also.
Pramac has the option to renew with Ducati, and since said option does not run out until July 31, it stands to reason that the silly season still has a long time to play out, especially if the Italian squad does choose Yamaha instead.
However, that Gresini, for example, is understood to be considering Miller suggests that some of the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place by then.
Already, rumours have circulated as to what obligations Ducati has to Aldeguer if it cannot give the Spanish talent the promotion to MotoGP which it promised.
Those rumours have included big-money compensation of EUR 300,000 (approximately AUD 484,000*) but, according to his manager, Hector Faubel, they are wrong – because they undersell the payout.
“It has been said that if Ducati told him he would not have a bike, they would have to give him EUR 300,000,” Faubel told Mundo Deportivo earlier this month.
“It’s a lie. I cannot say the figure, but it is much higher.”
As it stands, Pramac is the senior satellite team, being the only entrant other than the factory squad with 2024-spec Desmosedicis, whereas VR46 and Gresini field 2023-spec bikes.
Furthermore, its riders are contracted to Ducati, whereas those of VR46 and Gresini are contracted to their respective teams.
Intriguingly, Faubel says there are no firm guarantees as to which model of bike Aldeguer would ride in 2025.
“The first year, he could have a GP24 or a GP25; Ducati will decide that,” he explained.
“In the second year, however, he will definitely have a GP26.”
That revelation makes it harder to infer Ducati’s Plan B if it loses Pramac, although VR46 Team Director Uccio Salucci has already spoken in Italian media about becoming the Bologna marque’s “reference team” in 2027, when the new technical regulations take effect.
That could well be brought forward, but the Aldeguer problem remains if VR46 exercises its option on Di Giannantonio – which, like Pramac’s with Ducati, also runs out at the end of July – and brings in Morbidelli.
It is, of course, not without precedent that a Ducati-contracted rider is placed at Gresini, given Enea Bastianini was in 2022, but that scenario is reliant on the Nadia Padovani-led squad still having a berth to offer, rather than handing it to Miller.
Furthermore, VR46 is something of a rider development team, which has certain synergies with the role which Pramac currently serves for Ducati, and an association with Valentino Rossi is more commercially attractive than one with Gresini.
Plan B could well be to convince VR46 to take Aldeguer, who would become its first non-Italian rider in any class, with the lure of latest-spec machinery, while Di Giannantonio would be attractive to Pramac given its contract with naming rights sponsor Prima is said to require an Italian (a condition met currently by Morbidelli).
When the next piece of the puzzle falls into place remains to be seen, although there could be more movement this weekend when the 2024 MotoGP season resumes at Assen.
* Converted at AUD 1 = EUR 0.6204
