Relief for Franco Morbidelli: his career continues thanks to Ducati

Five current MotoGP riders will lose their seats at the end of this season: Maverick Viñales, Alex Rins, Jack Miller, Brad Binder and Franco Morbidelli. They have three things in common: they are all over 30 years old, multiple MotoGP winners and currently sit in the lower half of the World Championship standings. For some of them, this could spell the end of their careers.

Not for Binder and Morbidelli, however. As reported by SPEEDWEEK.com, South African Binder is set to join the BMW works team, succeeding Danilo Petrucci, whilst Miguel Oliveira has extended his contract by three years (2+1).

Meanwhile, Morbidelli has come out on top in internal discussions regarding the second seat in the Aruba Ducati works team and is set to ride alongside Iker Lecuona, whose contract has already been extended until the end of 2028. Franco does not yet have a signed contract; the contractual details are currently being finalised.

The ideal scenario from the outset

Ducati with Morbidelli: the dream scenario for fans and the media in Italy right from the start. But it was by no means a foregone conclusion. The list of interested parties was long, including talented riders such as Moto2 World Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (24), who was turned down by Ducati as well as by BMW and will therefore remain in the middleweight GP class, continuing to ride for the Memmingen-based Intact team.

Aruba boss Stefano Cecconi has always emphasised the expectations he has of his riders. It is also clear that a MotoGP rider only moves to the World Superbike Championship if he can no longer find a place in the premier class.

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Morbidelli, who is tough as nails and at times reckless on the track, is always friendly and polite off the track – traits that Cecconi values highly in terms of fostering a good team atmosphere. For main sponsor Aruba, which makes its money from cloud storage, as well as for Ducati, having an Italian rider is also a marketing asset. The 30-year-old’s past sporting achievements are also promising: in 2017, ‘Morbido’ became Moto2 World Champion, and in 2020 – the year of the coronavirus pandemic – he surprisingly finished second overall in MotoGP with Yamaha. He has secured eleven Grand Prix victories, three of which were in MotoGP. He has stood on the podium eight times in the premier class, started from pole position twice and set the fastest lap twice.

Morbidelli must prove himself in his first year

The political manoeuvring behind the scenes also works in Morbidelli’s favour: VR46 would have liked to promote Academy rider Celestino Vietti from Moto2 to MotoGP, but has had to bow to Ducati’s wishes and take Superbike World Championship leader Nicolo Bulega instead. This provides a strong incentive to secure the Roman’s place at Aruba.

As with Lecuona’s signing in the summer of 2025, it is unclear whether Morbidelli will be able to realise his riding potential at Ducati, so Aruba will employ a clever tactic and offer him a contract for 2027 with an option for a second season, which the team can exercise.

What hardly anyone knows these days is that Morbidelli cut his teeth in the SBK paddock and won the Superstock 600 European Championship on a Kawasaki in 2013. In the same year, he competed in his first three Moto2 races and has been a full-time GP rider since 2014.