Ruben Fernandez has to leave Honda: will he soon be Gajser’s team-mate again?

The 2026 Motocross World Championship recently came to an end in Darwin, Australia. Spain’s Ruben Fernandez finished the year in seventh place with the Honda team, although he was unable to compete in the last two Grands Prix due to injury. His best individual result this year was third place in the first race at the Frauenfeld Grand Prix in Switzerland.

There is no longer a place for Fernandez at HRC for the 2027 season. Honda will now compete in the MXGP category solely with world champion Jeffrey Herlings and the Frenchman Tom Vialle. However, after five years with Honda, the 27-year-old Fernandez could once again join a Japanese factory team.

Yamaha has now emerged as the most promising option. The deal with French rider Maxime Renaux will not be renewed there. This means that Fernandez could once again become Tim Gajser’s team-mate at Yamaha. Between 2023 and 2025, Fernandez rode alongside the 30-year-old Slovenian in the Honda works team.

At the Kawasaki works team, a solution is emerging for Febvre’s successor, though it is not really a genuine one – probably because the market has little else to offer. Alongside Frenchman Mathis Valin, who will be competing as a rookie and has been sidelined since the summer due to injury, the deal with Pauls Jonass in the MXGP team is expected to be extended. The experienced Latvian has posted solid results in the closing stages of the season, finishing 9th in the World Championship standings.