Pramac to leave Ducati and become Yamaha satellite MotoGP team from 2025

Pramac will leave Ducati for the 2025 MotoGP season and become a Yamaha satellite team, with Autosport understanding an official announcement is expected this weekend.

The team will end an association of almost two decades with Ducati as a satellite team to embrace the offer presented by Yamaha, a possibility that had been cooking very seriously for months.

Autosport was able to confirm that the decision has been made and the official announcement will take place this weekend at Assen, where the Dutch GP, the eighth stop on the 2024 MotoGP calendar, will be held.

With the decision to leave Ducati, Pramac is giving up a two-year contract as the Bologna-based manufacturer’s first partner team that entitled it to two factory bikes – a status it has been enjoying since 2020.

Ducati put an expiration date of renewal as the end of 2026, which was a decision that is the origin of the disagreement between the manufacturer and team owner Paolo Campinoti, and which has finally led to a premature break-up.

This news also comes in the wake of Ducati’s decision not to promote Jorge Martin to its factory team in 2025 in favour of Marc Marquez, forcing the current championship leader to sign for Aprilia.

Pramac entered MotoGP in 2002 by sponsoring the Honda Racing Team, and in 2005 it partnered with the D’Antin Team, already on Ducati machinery.

Since then the relationship between the manufacturer and Campinoti has gone through ups and downs, until in 2020 Pramac became a partner team, enjoying the best material from the manufacturer.

Last year both parties reached an agreement to continue together in 2025 and 2026, with the same conditions and material.

This year, however, Campinoti detected a growing interest from Ducati in the VR46 structure, and the manufacturer even raised the possibility of Pramac ‘ceding’ an official bike to Valentino Rossi’s team, which triggered the war between the two parties.

Yamaha’s first choice when it came to recovering the satellite team it lost two seasons ago was none other than Rossi’s VR46 squad, given the historic ties between the two and the fact the nine-time world champion is now a brand ambassador.

But quickly the answer was negative and Pramac became “plan B”.

Although negotiations were not broken off at any time, before the Italian Grand Prix all the signs from the team were that they were going to continue…