2027 Motocross World Championship: The final decisions have been made in the rider market

There has been quite a bit of movement in the Motocross World Championship rider market over the past few days. Firstly, Ruben Fernandez was officially bid farewell by Honda. As reported, after three years with the factory team, the Spaniard is joining Yamaha, where he will once again be team-mate to five-time champion Tim Gajser. Yamaha announced Fernandez’s arrival at the start of the week.

Fernandez has signed a contract with Yamaha running until 2028. Gajser has resumed training; he most recently rode in splendid conditions in Slovenia on his private track, ‘TIGA243 Land’. In the course of this, the Slovenian revealed that medical checks in the autumn had revealed that he had broken not two, but in fact five ribs. During his time off, Gajser had, as reported, recently got married in Croatia.

Veteran rider Romain Febvre was recently officially honoured by Kawasaki with words of praise for his seven years with the team, including his 2025 World Championship title. The Frenchman is, of course, moving to Red Bull Ducati for 2027. The 34-year-old’s team-mate at the Italian outfit will be Andrea Bonacorsi. As things stand, Kawasaki Factory will compete in the 450cc class in 2027 with only Pauls Jonass, who is entering his third year. In contrast, the MX2 line-up will be doubled – MX2 European Champion Francisco Garcia joins Mathis Valin.

Exciting news: rumours have recently surfaced about a possible return of Suzuki to the Motocross World Championship. It is said that Belgian Joel Smets, following his departure from KTM, is already pulling the strings behind the scenes – Kemea’s organisation is standing by, ready to go. At Honda, following Fernandez’s departure, World Champion Jeffrey Herlings and Tom Vialle remain on board in the MXGP category. Herlings recently dominated his guest appearance in Japan at will. In the MX2 class, the Honda line-up has been completely overhauled with Julius Mikula and Maxime Grau.

At Red Bull KTM, Frenchman Maxime Renaux is making his debut in the MXGP category as part of the De Carli family’s team, with Andrea Adamo and Valerio Lata as his team-mates. Also new: KTM’s in-house team, featuring Simon Längenfelder, will be coached by Dutchman Marc de Reuver going forward. The Triumph works team will enter its first official season in the MXGP class with the new Spanish MX2 World Champion, Guillem Farres.

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World Champion Kimi Antonelli: record-breaker, heart-breaker, the Tifosi’s dream

With his third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest of the 36 Formula 1 world champions to date. The 20-year-old Italian is on a record-breaking run. The Tifosi are dreaming of Antonelli in a Ferrari.

Mathias Brunner

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