– With the pairing of Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio officially announced (finally) during Sachsenring week, the KTM factory team is completely restructuring its rider lineup for the MotoGP seasons 2027 and 2028.
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Pedro Acosta, the current spearhead at KTM, is moving to the Ducati factory team for the next two years alongside top dog Marc Marquez. For Brad Binder, the chances of remaining in the MotoGP field beyond the current season have dropped to almost zero.
Binder thus involuntarily joins a group of MotoGP veterans who will no longer be seen on the premier class grid in 2027. Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins, and Maverick Vinales can certainly relate.
The mood is, of course, very different for Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, the two future KTM factory riders. Interestingly, both are moving from Ducati satellite teams to the Austrian factory team. The younger Marquez brother will switch from Gresini, while “Diggia” comes from VR46.
Alex Marquez rides for a factory team again after six years
“I am really excited because this is a great opportunity and a really big step for me in my MotoGP career,” says Alex Marquez after his move, which had been clear behind the scenes for months, was finally officially announced. KTM will be the second factory team in the premier class for the younger Marquez brother, after he rode directly for the Honda factory team as a rookie in 2020.
Alex Marquez’s strongest MotoGP season so far was 2025, which he finished as vice world champion on the Gresini Ducati behind his brother Marc Marquez on the factory Ducati. Because his own prospects of moving up to the Ducati factory team were very slim, he started looking early for possible alternatives.
“After the vice title in 2025 and a really good season with plenty of points, I set myself the goal of signing a factory contract, especially because there will be a completely new regulation next year and it will therefore be important to get all upgrades early,” explains Alex Marquez about the thoughts behind his decision.
The negotiations with KTM did not take long, as Alex Marquez reveals. “When I started talking to KTM, they were absolutely determined to bring me into their project. They showed me everything a rider needs, the passion, the eagerness. I quickly came to the conclusion that it is a project I like. Why not be the big surprise next year?”
Photo gallery: The contract durations of current MotoGP riders
However, the younger Marquez brother also admits that the decision to leave the family-like Gresini team after four years was not easy for him. “It was not an easy decision, but Nadia [Padovani], Michele [Masini], and Carlo [Merlini] were informed from the first day I started talking to KTM. Why? Because I promised Nadia that she would be the first to know if someone approached me.”
Di Giannantonio calls it the “best decision for my professional career”
Di Giannantonio felt similarly about the decision to leave VR46. Valentino Rossi’s team was the one that gave him the opportunity to continue his MotoGP career in the winter of 2023/24. In the Gresini team, where he had ridden for two years before, “Diggia” had to make way for Marc Marquez, who terminated his Honda contract a year early.
“It was definitely not an easy decision after building something like a family relationship with these people,” says Di Giannantonio about the VR46 crew and admits: “It’s really hard to think about not sharing the box with these people anymore. But of course, I also tried to think about myself.”
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Just like for Alex Marquez, the offer from a factory team was exactly what Di Giannantonio wanted and that is why he also accepted KTM. However, the Italian does not want to go into detail about his decision at this point in the year.
“This is not the right moment for it now, but I believe it is the best decision for my career, for my future. I will be 28 next year and then have five years of MotoGP experience. So it was the right time to take on a new challenge and become the face of a company, a factory team,” says Di Giannantonio.
Already, half a year before the switch, the Italian speaks of “the best decision for my professional career” and explains: “I am very proud of my decision. Together with my teammate, I will lead a large group of people to achieve our goal, namely to win titles. That is our big goal. Achieving it would make me incredibly proud.”
Alex Marquez: Why moving up to the Ducati factory team was not an option
When Alex Marquez was recently asked what he thinks about both himself and Di Giannantonio moving from Ducati satellite teams to the KTM factory team, he replied: “It makes no difference to me. Yes, we both come from Ducati, so our statements will probably be very similar. But for me, it changes nothing. I can only say that the faster of the two of us will be ahead.”
That Ducati apparently did not make him an offer to move up to the factory team alongside his brother Marc Marquez is not a problem for Alex Marquez, as he says: “They were focused very early on getting Pedro [Acosta]. I accept that. I think it is normal, after all, Pedro is the future MotoGP world champion. He is still very young and has everything. I am already 30 and therefore in a different situation than Pedro.”
Finally, Alex Marquez reveals that at the beginning of contract negotiations with KTM, it was not the Austrian manufacturer who approached him, but the other way around. “I am lucky that I already know many people within the KTM project because they have worked for me or with me in the past.”
Alex Marquez’s first full season in the motorcycle world championship, the Moto3 season 2013, was on a KTM. He won a race directly in Motegi back then. Since then, he has ridden for other manufacturers. In 2027, he will be reunited with KTM. “I just made a few phone calls and then decided,” says the current MotoGP vice world champion about his swift negotiations in winter 2025/26.
Marc Marquez’s opinion on Alex Marquez’s KTM switch
And what does Marc Marquez say about his younger brother riding for a factory team again in the future? To recall: in 2020, both rode for the Honda factory team. However, they only competed in one race as teammates because Marc had his serious accident at the season opener in Jerez, which forced him to make a rushed comeback at the second Jerez weekend, which then sidelined him for the rest of the season.
½Trienitz|Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez|Marc Marquez is happy for brother Alex and his decision||606|479pb¿About Alex Marquez’s move to KTM, Marc Marquez said on the sidelines of his successful Sachsenring weekend: “I am really happy for Alex that he signed with a factory team. Some people will understand his decision, others won’t.”
“Last year Alex was world championship runner-up and of course we talked about our future. I asked him for his opinion about my future and he asked me for my opinion about his future. I think [KTM] is a good opportunity for Alex to continue growing. Because he is coming to a factory that wants to be at the front in the future.”
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