The Spanish rider finished third in last year’s Moto2 world championship and proved one of the sensations of the season in which he accumulated a total of five wins, including the last four rounds of the campaign.
Aldeguer already had the possibility of joining the premier class this year, after interest shown by VR46 in his eagerness to find a replacement for Luca Marini once it was known that the Italian would race with Honda.
However, the penalty clause that 18-year-old Aldeguer had to face in order to be released from his contract with his current Speed Up team in Moto2 prevented the move.
It is understood that even HRC asked him after Marc Marquez’s decision to leave for Gresini Ducati, prior to his hiring of Marini.
His relationship with Speed Up boss Luca Boscoscuro resolved, Aldeguer traveled to Bologna in mid-January and met around a table for lunch with Gigi Dall’Igna, Ducati’s general manager.
Ducati, who today supplies the MotoGP grid with eight of its bikes, has agreed with him to place Aldeguer in the workshop of the Pramac team that has closed factory ties.
Fermin Aldeguer, Speed Up Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Everything seems set for Jorge Martin to face his last year with Paolo Campinoti’s team in 2024, either because for 2025 he will be promoted to the factory Ducati team – presumably as a replacement for Enea Bastianini – or because he decides to leave the Ducati stable.
Martin had a clause in his contract that would have seen him promoted to the factory Ducati squad for 2024 had he won the championship last year.
When asked by Motorsport.com about this in Valencia last November, the 2023 runner-up felt that if he hadn’t proven to Ducati he deserved a factory tea seat already, he never will.
“I think, sincerely speaking, if I didn’t show yet my potential for them to be in red, I will never be in red because doing more than this is quite complicated,” he said.
“And arriving into the last race, finishing second, I think if they didn’t put me there, they won’t put me anyway.”
Despite the interest shown in Aldeguer during the final stretch of last season by VR46, Ducati’s uncertainty surrounding a possible alliance between the team of Valentino Rossi and Yamaha, and the level of independence maintained by the Tavullia team’s structure, has made the manufacturer bet on Pramac for the rookie.
Pramac will unveil its 2024 livery in Bahrain on Wednesday ahead of the Formula 1 season-opener, with the team having run F1 logos on its Ducatis since 2021.
