Francesco Bagnaia Will Leave Ducati at the End of 2026 — Valencia His Final Race in Red

Francesco Bagnaia will leave the Ducati Lenovo Team at the end of the 2026 MotoGP season, confirmed today by Ducati. Bagnaia leaving Ducati ends an eight-year association — six of them at the factory team — with the Valencia Grand Prix as his final race in red. The announcement was made on June 24, 2026.

Francesco Bagnaia Leaving Ducati: Eight Seasons, Two Titles

The record Bagnaia built at Ducati is the most complete in the team’s MotoGP history: two Riders’ World Championships (2022, 2023), 31 Grand Prix victories, 63 podiums, 28 pole positions. The 2022 title was the first Ducati Riders’ championship since Casey Stoner in 2007 — fifteen years between them — and the beginning of the most sustained run of factory dominance Borgo Panigale has seen in the premier class. Eleven of those 31 wins came in 2024 alone, his most productive single season by race result.

Bagnaia joined Ducati Corse in 2019 as a MotoGP rookie, developing through the Pramac satellite program before promotion to the factory Lenovo seat in 2021. Ducati Corse General Manager Luigi Dall’Igna described him as a rider they sought out from a very young age to build a project around. The project delivered two consecutive world titles and installed Bagnaia, by Ducati’s own account, as the most successful rider the Desmosedici GP has carried.

The 2027 Picture: What the Bagnaia Departure and Acosta Signing Mean Together

The sequencing of today’s announcements tells its own story. Earlier on June 24, Ducati confirmed Pedro Acosta will join the factory team for 2027 and 2028 alongside Marc Marquez. Bagnaia leaving Ducati was confirmed the same afternoon. The two press releases together complete the 2027 factory lineup transition in a single news cycle. The seat was effectively decided before either announcement was published.

Where Bagnaia goes in 2027 is not addressed in today’s announcement and remains unconfirmed. With Bagnaia leaving Ducati’s factory seat open from 2027, the candidate destinations include Aprilia, Yamaha, and KTM — each with factory vacancies materialising at the end of this season. Both Ducati and Bagnaia have committed publicly to seeing out 2026 at full effort through the Valencia finale.

Claudio Domenicali noted that Bagnaia’s clean and elegant riding style “make Ducatisti fall in love with him” — a generous line and an accurate one for a rider who did something genuinely difficult: win a world title for a manufacturer that had been waiting fifteen years for one, then win it again the following year. The news of Bagnaia leaving Ducati raises the question of where he goes next, and the rest of the 2026 season leaves open. He is 29 years old and has 31 race wins. Wherever the next chapter begins, the material he arrives with is not in question.

About The Author

Allan Lane

Philadelphia born and bred, Allan Lane is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of digital magazines. He launched his first publication, SportBikes Inc Magazine in 2010, followed by dosage MAGAZINE in 2019. Recently, Allan launched his third online publication, Club For Man. As a journalist, Allan covers fashion, lifestyle, culture, art, and motorcycles.

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