Aprilia and Bagnaia: The Betrothed
The many rumors – now considered certain – circulating in the MotoGP paddock for the 2027 season have not yet found official confirmation. And among these, one of the certainties seems to be the transfer of Pecco Bagnaia to Aprilia, after the official Ducati team decided to focus on Pedro Acosta alongside Marc Marquez.
After a long journey together crowned by the two world titles in 2022 and 2023, Bagnaia looked around and chose the Noale-based manufacturer. A promising destination in light of this start to the championship, although the rules will change significantly next year.
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The backstory on Pecco: was there ‘sabotage’ by Quartararo?
During Nico Abad’s podcast, journalist Diego Lacave shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story about Bagnaia’s decision: “Pecco had one and a half feet in Yamaha, but he got very scared after talking to Fabio Quartararo“, who evidently advised his colleague against the idea of joining the Iwata-based manufacturer.
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And this behavior by the French champion reportedly did not sit well with Yamaha’s top management: “Paolo Pavesio, the general manager, does not forgive Fabio Quartararo for all the trash he is spreading inside and outside the team. Thus they lost the signing of Pecco, who finalized with Aprilia in a week.”
Lacave then added details about the four-year contract between Bagnaia and Aprilia: “The problem was the money Pecco wanted to earn. They couldn’t give it to him in a two-year deal, so Rivola proposed a 2+2: if you do well in the first two years there will be no problems, but there is still a clause whereby they could eventually move him to a satellite team, to still reach that figure over 4 years.”
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