Submitted by David Emmett on
With the announcement that Xavier Simeon will be signing for the Avintia Ducati team, the 2018 MotoGP rider line up is complete.
The full rider line up, complete with contract duration, appears below:
| Teams/Riders | Bike | Contract ends |
| Factory Teams | ||
| Movistar Yamaha | ||
| Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 2018 |
| Maverick Viñales | Yamaha M1 | 2018 |
| Repsol Honda | ||
| Dani Pedrosa | Honda RC213V | 2018 |
| Marc Márquez | Honda RC213V | 2018 |
| Ecstar Suzuki | ||
| Andrea Iannone | Suzuki GSX-RR | 2018 |
| Alex Rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 2018 |
| Gresini Aprilia | ||
| Scott Redding | Aprilia RS-GP | 2018 |
| Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia RS-GP | 2018 |
| KTM Factory | ||
| Bradley Smith*1 | KTM RC16 | 2018 |
| Pol Espargaro | KTM RC16 | 2018 |
| Factory Ducati | ||
| Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati GP18 | 2018 |
| Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP18 | 2018 |
| Satellite Teams | ||
| Pramac Ducati | ||
| Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP18 | 2018 |
| Jack Miller | Ducati GP17 | 2018 |
| LCR Honda | ||
| Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 2019 |
| Taka Nakagami | Honda RC213V | 2018 |
| Monster Tech 3 Yamaha | ||
| Jonas Folger | Yamaha M1 | 2018 |
| Johann Zarco | Yamaha M1 | 2018 |
| Marc VDS Honda | ||
| Franco Morbidelli | Honda RC213V | 2019 |
| Tom Luthi | Honda RC213V | 2018 |
| Aspar Ducati | ||
| Alvaro Bautista | Ducati GP17 | 2018 |
| Karel Abraham | Ducati GP16 | 2018 |
| Avintia Ducati | ||
| Tito Rabat | Ducati GP17 | 2018 |
| Xavier Simeon | Ducati GP16 | 2019 |
1. Since Austria, reports have continued that KTM is losing patience with Bradley Smith, and that they may swap his role with Mika Kallio, promoting Kallio to the MotoGP team and making Smith the test rider.
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Comments
Whoa. Let the 2018 Silly
Whoa. Let the 2018 Silly season commence
Isn`t Simeon`s contract for two years?
The announcement in MotoGP.com says his contract is both for 2018 and 2019, does`t it?
Simeon's contract
You are correct. A typo on my part. So used to typing 2018 for all of the contracts! Fixed now.
Silly Season
All wrapped up by mid-September. Tidy.
Of course, then I see all but two of the contracts expiring at the end of 2018, and I'm reminded of the reason for this year's relative calm. The riders (and agents) sighing in relief right now won't have long to relax.
Quiet before the storm
Wow. For 2019 there will be quite a sensational chair dance coming up. Just two contracts extending into 2019.
bike versioning
Ducati's GP18, GP17,GP16
anyone know the major differences ?
sure...
The 2018 bike doesn't really exist in its released form just yet, the 2017 has the salad box (electronic relocation for fairing shenannigans at the front) and the 2016 bike does not.
There's surely plenty of other detail differences as well.
Suzuki 2019-2020
Fearless prediction - I see their lineup being Alex Rins and Pecco Bagnaia.
And on the old Ducati bikes, Karel Abraham will score more points than Xavier Simeon.
Aprilia
How long will Gresini's involvement in the Aprilia project continue? Annoys me that they are not considered a full factory team. Surely Aprilia have the resources now to run things themselves?