Markus Zoerweg
Head of Motorcycle Department
With the outstanding MSM motorcycle gang, Markus keeps things running at MotoGP, WSBK & Co. He likes to irritate people with his Austrian accent.MORE
With Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales, the team around motorsport boss Pit Beirer has managed to secure two real top transfers. Bastianini has to vacate his current place in the Ducati factory team for 2025 and make way for Marc Marquez. After the Marquez-Ducati deal became known, Bastianini’s move to the KTM camp quickly became clear. His manager Carlo Pernat chatted about him publicly on Italian radio.
Enea Bastianini: MotoGP restart in the KTM camp at Tech3
Bastianini is leaving Ducati after a total of four years. Borgo Panigale signed him in 2020 after he won the Moto2 World Championship and helped him to move up to MotoGP at Esponsorama Racing. A decent rookie season with two MotoGP podiums in Misano was followed by a move to Gresini Racing, which turned out to be an absolute stroke of luck for both sides. Bastianini won four races and was promoted to the factory team for 2023. But he was never able to live up to the high expectations there. After an injury-filled debut season in red, he has only won one race for the factory team to date.
Maverick Vinales: Next MotoGP change
Less expected than Bastianini’s departure from the Ducati camp was the end of the collaboration between Maverick Vinales and Aprilia. The Spaniard won his first Grand Prix for the Noale-based team in Austin in 2024, becoming the first rider in the MotoGP era to win on three different manufacturers (Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia, ed.). When Aleix Espargaro finally announced his retirement at the end of the year in Barcelona at the end of May, the way seemed clear for Vinales to become the new team leader.
But the situation at Aprilia was already tense at this point. Vinales publicly stated that Aprilia could have extended his contract in March, but now he had the upper hand. Racing CEO Massimo Rivola and co. were initially not interested in extending Vinales’ contract, preferring to wait for Aleix Espargaro’s decision. “A mistake,” Rivola later admitted. The fact that Aprilia then put Jorge Martin, currently the fastest man in MotoGP, in front of him on June 3 was probably too much for Vinales. So he returned to the KTM camp after more than a decade: in 2013 he became Moto3 World Champion for the Austrian manufacturer.
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