2018 Motorcycle racing world championship has not even started and the teams are already planning their moves for 2019. The first of them has been Pecco Bagnaia, currently racing in the Moto2 class, joining Ducati Pramac for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Bagnaia, current VR46 Academy member, will do in 2018 his second Moto2 season with the Valentino Rossi‘s team, the Sky VR46 and has already his seat confirmed for 2019.
His arrival to the intermediate class happened in 2017, after performing really well in 2016 in Moto3, where he managed to win two races in a techically worse Mahindra bike and join Sky VR46 to step up to Moto2. On his first season there, he obtained four podium finishes and finished in fifth place on the standings. He was also named the series’ rookie of the year.
Due to that, it is expected that Bagnaia fights for the Moto2 title in 2018 and why Ducati has decided to confirm his graduation to the premiere class in 2019. In 2016, when the season had just finished, his team principal at that time, Jorge Martínez Aspar, gave him the chance to test a MotoGP Ducati, so he will not be completely new to the series.
At the moment, the team has not said who will Bagnaia be replacing at the team. Pramac Racing will do the 2018 season with Danilo Petrucci, who will be at the team for a fourth consecutive year after completing a great 2017 season; and Jack Miller, who has just joined the team and whose performance with the bike in pre-season testing has been impressive. It is expected, however, that the Italian rider will leave the team by own decision.
The 2018 motorcycle racing, on which Bagnaia will still be focused on winning the Moto2 world title, will begin the 18th of March with the Qatar GP in Losail as the season opener.
