Four Out of Five MotoGP Champions on the Current Grid to Change Manufacturers for the 2027 Season
27 July 2026The 2027 MotoGP season was already set to provide a big shake-up with its new regulations, but rider contracts are giving us more change ahead of this new era of the sport. With these new regulations approaching, many riders have decided that now is the right time to make a change, with four out of the five MotoGP World Champions on the current grid choosing to move to new manufacturers for 2027.
Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez is the only rider on this list who isn’t making a change for 2027, with his seat at the Ducati Lenovo Team confirmed for 2027 and 2028. His choice to stay with his current team was the obvious option - he’s the reigning World Champion, having won the 2025 season in his first year riding for the Ducati’s Factory team. Although issues related to injuries prompted retirement rumours for the seven time MotoGP World Champion, he’s now set to continue working with the team that gave him his first Championship title in six seasons.
Joan Mir
It’s safe to say that MotoGP’s 2020 World Champion hasn’t had the easiest time at Honda since joining their Factory team for 2023, after Suzuki left the paddock at the end of the 2022 season. Joan Mir’s time with the manufacturer began with him facing the same issues that plagued Marc Marquez during his final seasons with Honda, but the RC213V has become more competitive over the recent seasons, as shown by the manufacturer moving from Concessions Category D to Category C for the 2026 season, and Mir picking up his first podium with Honda at Motegi in 2025. Amongst the progress though, Mir has recorded a large number of DNFs across his seasons with Honda, through a mix of his own mistakes and being caught up in incidents caused by other riders, and things just haven’t quite clicked the way Mir or Honda would have hoped.
It has now been confirmed that for 2027, Mir will be swapping his Factory Honda seat for a Satellite Ducati ride, racing for BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP. Whilst moving from a Factory seat to a Satellite ride may sound like a downgrade, the Team’s results over the last few seasons show that strong results are possible. Additionally, he’s following in the footsteps of Marc Marquez, who left Honda’s Factory team at the end of the 2023 season to join Gresini, a move which proved to be a hugely impactful turning point in Marquez’s career.
Fabio Quartararo
Quartararo’s name has become somewhat synonymous with Yamaha, as the sole manufacturer he’s worked with in MotoGP since his move up to the premier class in 2019. First starting on a Satellite bike with Petronas Yamaha SRT, before moving up into the Factory team in 2021, effectively replacing Valentino Rossi - some very big shoes to fill. Together, Quartararo and Yamaha won the 2021 MotoGP World Championship, and finished as runners-up in 2022, but recent years have seen Quartararo’s frustrations grow with the manufacturer, as they fell behind and became the sole manufacturer still using the inline-four engine. Quartararo was only able to secure one Grand Prix podium finish during the 2025 season, a 2nd place finish at the Grand Prix of Spain, and a heartbreaking retirement at last year’s Grand Prix at Silverstone whilst leading the race means his last race win was at Sachsenring back in 2022.
Although Yamaha have now swapped over to the V4 engine, their progress hasn’t been enough to convince Quartararo that the future of his career doesn’t lie elsewhere. The most recent of the rider contract announcements confirmed that Quartararo will be moving to Honda for 2027, racing for their Factory team. The change marks a massive moment in Quartararo’s MotoGP career, and he’ll be hoping that with the new regulations, he will be able to emulate the success that Marc Marquez had with Honda.
Jorge Martin
After winning the 2024 World Championship with Prima Pramac Racing in his fourth year racing for the Satellite Ducati team, Jorge Martin made the move to the Factory Aprilia team. Martin’s 2025 season tested his determination and resilience to the extreme, with serious injuries sustained during pre-season activities and then in Grands Prix seeing him only finish four of the 2025 season’s twenty two Grands Prix. Martin’s relationship with Aprilia was also tested during this period, and rumours emerged during his recovery that Martin was attempting to end his contract with the manufacturer early. Though it was later revealed that Martin would be staying with Aprilia for the second year of his contract, the tension between rider and manufacturer was clearly still present.
In July it was announced that Martin would be moving into a Factory Yamaha seat for 2027, seeing him add a third manufacturer to his MotoGP career roster. The decision could be seen as a bold move, given Yamaha’s current level of performance, but if they can get a positive start to the new regulations, we could see Martin thriving once again. Martin’s performance so far in 2026 means he currently sits at the top of the Championship Standings. Could we see Martin take the #1 plate to a new manufacturer for the second time in his MotoGP career?
Francesco Bagnaia
Similarly to Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia has only raced with one manufacturer during his time in MotoGP so far, but for Bagnaia, that manufacturer has been Ducati. After two seasons with Satellite team Pramac Racing, Bagnaia moved to the Factory Ducati team in 2021 and immediately saw positive results, taking his first MotoGP podium in the first round of the season, and his first win later that year in Aragon, eventually finishing 2nd in the Championship. Bagnaia’s success with the Factory team continued, and 2022 saw him win his first MotoGP World Championship, before then successfully defending his title to become a double World Champion in 2023.
A close title fight in 2024 saw Bagnaia finish 2nd, but 2025 produced a very different season for Bagnaia, as he struggled with the GP25, with the latter half of the season proving particularly difficult, and the strong performance by his new teammate, Marc Marquez, only further highlighting Bagnaia’s drop in form. Whilst 2026 has shown glimpses of the Bagnaia we were used to during his Championship winning years, it’s clear the difficulties experienced last season still hang over his head. Needing a new challenge and new opportunities, Bagnaia is moving to the Factory Aprilia team for 2027, partnering up with fellow VR46 Academy rider Marco Bezzecchi.
With such huge changes coming to the grid in 2027, it’ll be interesting to see which of the World Champions best rise to their new challenge, and who could find themselves competing to be MotoGP World Champion once again.
