Enea Bastianini splits with KTM: starting in 2027 with Aprilia to be The Beast again

The separation between the Italian rider and the Austrian manufacturer has been announced, and his future has been defined as well: will 2027 be a year of revival?

No surprise, but the long-awaited official announcement has finally arrived. Enea Bastianini will stop racing for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team at the end of the 2026 MotoGP season. It had long been known that the parties would not continue their professional relationship into 2027.

After two years below expectations, the rider from Rimini is looking for a new challenge to breathe new life into his career. Only on a few occasions has he felt completely at ease riding the RC16; otherwise, he has struggled quite a bit to achieve the level of performance he wanted. There are still ten Grands Prix to try to get good results, but the future is already written.

Bastianini will continue racing in MotoGP in 2027, but he will do so on an Aprilia: that of the SuperFile Trackhouse team. After rumors of a possible return to the Gresini team, which then decided to sign Joan Mir as an experienced rider in the box, the Romagnolo reached an agreement with the American squad owned by Justin Marks. The signing of a two-year contract was officially announced this morning, expiring in 2028.

He will take the place of Ai Ogura, who will join the factory Yamaha team, and he will partner the confirmed Raul Fernandez. He had the chance to ride an Aprilia as early as 2025–2026, joining the factory team, but he chose to commit to the KTM project and time has not proved him right. He will ride a Noale-built bike starting next year and hopes to have a competitive technical package at his disposal. The SuperFile Trackhouse team has shown it can work well and achieve important results; Enea will join a high-level working group.

Bastianini can’t wait to start the new adventure: “I’m really excited to join the SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP team for the next two MotoGP seasons. Starting from this year’s Valencia test, it will be a brand-new challenge for me, as we are entering a new era with a new bike, new tires, and new rules. For this reason, I’m happy to bring my experience and fighting spirit to Trackhouse so that we can develop the new Aprilia RS-GP together. The team has grown a lot over the course of 2026 and has become a title contender: I will certainly do my best to keep us at the top.”

With the team change, he aims to become competitive again and prove he is still “La Bestia,” the nickname he earned in the past for his fantastic performances. Clearly, today it’s impossible to know whether Aprilia will immediately have a competitive motorcycle: in 2027 there will be new technical regulations and also a new tire supplier (Pirelli). The current pecking order could change; however, the Noale manufacturer has grown a lot in recent MotoGP years, and it would be surprising if it weren’t immediately at a good level.