Gresini from Aprilia to Ducati

Gresini Racing will field Ducati machinery for the 2022 Motogp season after agreeing a two-year deal with the Italian marque to become one of its satellite squads.

Gresini, which has run Aprilia’s official factory entry since 2015, formerly fielded Honda machinery between 1997 and 2014. The team announced late last year that it would be parting ways with Aprilia, which will enter Motogp in 2022 as a standalone factory squad.

Ducati had already been in discussions with Gresini leader Fausto Gresini before his death in February from COVID-19.

Gresini will field Moto2 race winner Fabio Di Giannantonio, who currently races for its Moto2 team, and current Avintia Ducati Motogp rider Enea Bastianini, who competed with Gresini in Moto3 from 2014-16. Both will have 2021-spec bikes.

Ducati will expand to eight bikes for the 2022 season for the first time since 2018, with Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team set to partner with the marque. Although yet to be officially confirmed as Autosport went to press, VR46 will have a factory-spec bike for Luca Marini and a GP21 for Marco Bezzecchi, who is set to step up from the VR46 Moto2 team for 2022.

Rossi’s squad will take the place of Avintia, which confirmed last year that 2021 would be its final season in Motogp.

The Vr46/ducati tie-up paves the way for Petronas SRT to continue with Yamaha, which had offered M1s to Rossi’s team for next year, while neither Suzuki nor Aprilia will have a satellite squad in 2022.