Oddly enough, the silly season for MotoGP started right before the first race of the season with Valentino Rossi’s confirmation of staying at Yamaha for two other years. Since Jorge Lorenzo’s announcement of leaving for Ducati, things had settled down until last week.
Since Rossi confirmed he was retained by Yamaha for the next two years, it was obvious that Jorge Lorenzo would leave the team by the end of the season. If the Honda solution had been once evoked, the Spaniard from Mallorca will go to Rossi’s former team, Ducati, pushing either Iannone or Dovizioso out.
Last week, while his future in MotoGP was uncertain, Dani Pedrosa has been retained with Honda for two other seasons, the Japanese team keeping for themselves the rider who won the most races for them. Marc Marquez is expected to stay at Honda and the negotiations for his new contract might be underway already.
Today, after long negotiations, Ducati announced who will be paired with Jorge Lorenzo: Andre Dovizioso. Despite several mistakes in the beginning of the season, Iannone saves his place in the Ducati team. In the meantime, Andrea Iannone his teammate, announced he would be racing with Suzuki for the 2017 season.
Iannone’s announcement rushed another announcement which was strongly rumored since Lorenzo’s one. Indeed, Iannone will take Maverick Viñales’ place at Suzuki, therefore, the Spaniard had to announce his move to Yamaha to be paired with Valentino Rossi.
Apart from these main changes at the top of the grid, let’s remind that Jonas Folger will graduate to MotoGP with Tech 3, Sam Lowes will also graduate to Aprilia and Bradley Smith will move from Tech 3 to KTM.