Bezzecchi set to join factory Aprilia MotoGP team in 2025

Current VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi is finalising a move to the factory Aprilia MotoGP for the upcoming MotoGP season, Motorsport.com understands.

This move comes a year after three-time MotoGP grand prix winner Bezzecchi elected against a factory-spec Ducati at Pramac for 2024 to remain with his VR46 set-up on a year-old Desmosedici.

Motorsport.com understands that the operation that will take the current VR46 rider to become Jorge Martin's team-mate in the Aprilia factory structure should be finalised in the coming days.

In recent days, when talks with Aprilia intensified, Ducati developed a strategy to try to kill two birds with one stone: the idea was to avoid losing Bezzecchi and Pramac by joining them.

Ultimately this plan has not come to pass and will see Bezzecchi sign for Aprilia, and most likely that Paolo Campinoti's Pramac team will sign with Yamaha as its new bike supplier.

It is striking that the #72 rider would rather ride an RS-GP than the latest generation Desmosedici, whose performance, on paper, should be better than that of the Aprilia.

Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

It is also true that the quality leap of the GP24 has been greater than he had projected, with Bezzecchi struggling for form on the GP23 so far after seven rounds - the Italian 11th in the standings, two behind VR46 team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio.

It is clear that the arrival of Marc Marquez in the official Ducati garage in 2025, when he will become Francesco Bagnaia's team-mate, has caused some discomfort, not to say annoyance, in Valentino Rossi's entourage, in the training academy that bears his name and in VR46.

Motorsport.com understands that Ducati and VR46 are one step away from renewing their alliance and fortifying it a little more with factory bikes, provided that Pramac accepts Yamaha's proposal.

Precisely for this reason, those from Tavullia see the addition of the #93 as a threat to the ecosystem that has ruled until now; that which has seen Bagnaia celebrate the last two MotoGP titles, and that which has positioned VR46 as the perfect ally for Ducati.

"What is clear is that Marc's signing has not gone down well," a VR46 source tells this writer. "It's not just that he has blown the brand's philosophy out of the water, but also that he will certainly not bring stability."

The addition of such a controversial figure as Marquez to the VR46 universe may well have prompted a reaction of mistrust on the part of Bezzecchi, who also fits perfectly with the profile Aprilia is looking for - an Italian manufacturer that expects to welcome with open arms a rider of the same nationality.