We’re now four teams into MotoGP launch season, and after Gresini, Ducati Lenovo, and VR46, the first non-Ducati team has launched in the shape of Trackhouse Racing.
Trackhouse Racing
Trackhouse’s debut MotoGP season will start in just over one month, and it is perhaps one of the most anticipated debut seasons for a team in recent history, as the ownership’s American origin and NASCAR background opens possibilities for new commercial avenues for MotoGP.
However, that will take time, and Trackhouse needs first to establish itself in MotoGP and prove the worth of its project. Certainly, with Aprilia RS-GP machinery - including a factory-spec 2024 bike for Miguel Oliveira from the beginning of the season - it should be able to prove competitive, but for now the American team is sans a title sponsor.
Having recently tied up a deal with the fast food chain for a multi-race deal in NASCAR, there’s no doubting Trackhouse’s ability when it comes to marketing itself to potential sponsors, but MotoGP is something different, and certainly something with a smaller US appeal than NASCAR.
In the absence of a title sponsor, Trackhouse has been able to do more or less what it wants with the livery. In the end, it has strayed little from the ‘stars and stripes’ design it debuted with when the team was revealed late last year. As with the VR46 team and its fluo yellow design, you won’t be struggling to spot the Trackhouse bikes out on track this year.
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
Although 2025 is perhaps anticipated as a year of particularly significant change at the VR46 team, with a switch from Ducati to Yamaha machinery rumoured, the 2024 season is also one of change for Valentino Rossi’s team.
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Credit: Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team/YouTube.
In part, this is down to the departure of Luca Marini to Repsol Honda and the subsequent arrival of Fabio Di Giannantonio. It’s arguably an upward move for VR46, which swaps Marini - who has no MotoGP wins - for the winner of last year’s Qatar Grand Prix, Di Giannantonio.
Indeed, it was that victory under the Lusail floodlights that pretty much sealed the deal for Di Giannantonio to replace Marini, after it was Marini himself who usurped Di Giannantonio’s position at the top of the list of candidates for the aforementioned Repsol Honda ride.
Di Giannantonio slots into VR46 alongside Marco Bezzecchi, who won three Grands Prix in 2023, a year which ended more quietly than it started for the #72 thanks to a crash and consequent broken collarbone while riding flat track in the week before the Indonesian Grand Prix.
Although Bezzecchi does not go into 2024 as an immediate championship candidate, his bronze medal last year means the expectations are high, and his dominant performances in the three Grands Prix he won - Argentina (+4.085 seconds), France (+4.256 seconds), and India (+8.649 seconds) - indicate what is possible for the Italian.
Perhaps the most visible change for VR46 is its new sponsor. Gone is the yellow of Mooney, and in comes the red of Pertamina Enduro. A new tie-up with the state-owned Indonesian oil company, Pertamina, is doubtless more financially fruitful for VR46 than its previous one with the Italian finance company. Visually, the bikes are much different, with fluorescent yellow dominating the front of the bike, and the black base that has been with the team since its earliest Moto3 days swapped for white. Certainly, they’ll be easy to spot on-track.
Ducati Lenovo Team
The Ducati Lenovo team had a complicated 2023, as Enea Bastianini’s season was blighted first by injuries and then by a continuing feeling of discomfort with the Desmosedici GP23 that meant the #23 was able to finish on the podium only once, when he won the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Bastianini’s poor season meant that, despite Francesco Bagnaia’s riders’ title triumph, the factory Ducati team was not a player in the Teams’ World Championship, which instead went the way of Pramac Ducati which became the first Independent team to win that title.
For Ducati, which has undoubtedly built the best bike in MotoGP, winning all three titles - Riders’, Constructors’, and Teams’ - is the expectation, but allowing one of its satellite teams to beat its factory setup to one of those will no doubt have been a source of some disappointment last year.
In 2024, it will have to contend with Marc Marquez on a Gresini bike, as well as Marco Bezzecchi on a VR46 Ducati and Jorge Martin, who so nearly won last year’s riders’ crown, again on the Pramac machine. Therefore, the pressure will be on Bastianini and Bagnaia to deliver, but especially so on the former, whose job is certainly at risk when his contract expires at the end of the upcoming season.
Bastianini’s ability to respond to the pressure that comes with that situation in 2024 will be a key part of the season. He will attempt to make that response, as Bagnaia will attempt to retain his title, aboard a Desmosedici GP24, which we haven’t seen in its final form yet, even if a new engine was tested in Valencia last November.
What we do know, though, is that the GP24s of the factory team will be painted in red - shock - and more or less in the same livery as last year. The major change is a brightening up of the front of the bike, as the plate is now a fairly loud red rather than the black of last year. It means that Bagnaia’s #1 switches from red to black, and Bastianini’s #23 trades pink for white.
At the launch of the 2024 Ducati Lenovo Team, Francesco Bagnaia said: "I'm thrilled to kick off my fourth season with the Ducati Lenovo Team. The last test in Valencia provided positive feedback, giving us a solid foundation for the upcoming season's development work. I'm eager to hit the track and pick up where we left off. It's bound to be a challenging season, but we're ready to face it with our usual determination. As a close-knit team, we'll give our best to aim for the Championship once again."
Enea Bastianini added: "2023 was a challenging year, and I look forward to redeeming myself in the upcoming season. We have an exciting 2024 ahead of us. Despite participating in only a few Grands Prix last year, I've learned valuable lessons that I'll carry into the new season. I have great confidence in my Team, and I know we have all the potential to do well. I can't wait to hit the track and start the new season."
Gresini Racing
Gresini Ducati has become the first MotoGP team to launch its 2024 squad and livery ahead of the upcoming season, which will be the first in the team for Marc Marquez.
Marc joins his brother, Alex Marquez, in the satellite Ducati squad for this season. The #73 made his debut with Gresini in 2023, and proved the capacity of the team to be competitive. Marquez proved especially competitive in wet conditions, taking a first MotoGP pole position in Argentina and a podium in the race, too. Then, in Silverstone, he took his first MotoGP race win in the Sprint, before managing his first dry weather win in the Malaysian Sprint, a result he backed up with a podium in the Grand Prix.
Like his brother, Marc Marquez is joining the Gresini team from Honda, for whom he famously won six premier class world titles. HRC’s inability to provide him with a motorcycle with which he can win another championship - or even another race in more recent years - has been the reason for Marquez’ switch, and he will enter the 2024 season as a championship favourite.
As for the team, Gresini is about to enter its third season since splitting from Aprilia, for which it ran the factory race team between 2015 and 2021. Since then, it has won five Grands Prix - four with Enea Bastianini in 2022 and one with Fabio Di Giannantonio in 2023 - and two Sprints - both with Alex Marquez last year. In 2024, it suddenly becomes a title contender from the outset of the championship.
Whether it will be able to rise to the occasion will only be determined once the season gets underway, but we know that, with Ducati GP23s, it has the machinery to do it.
Those GP23s will be painted in the familiar light blue and red paint scheme that has become customary for Gresini since its aforementioned split from Gresini. It’s not an outright stunner, but it’s hardly disgusting, either. The absence of a title sponsor for the MotoGP class remains for 2024 - surprising considering its rider roster - but that at least allows Gresini to continue to build its identity around the blue and red.
Below are the dates for the remaining 2024 MotoGP team launches.
Tech3 GasGas Factory Racing - 29 January
Marc Marquez’ move from Repsol Honda to Gresini Ducati also saw Red Bull leave the factory Honda team. It was somewhat anticipated that the Austrian marketing and energy drink giant would follow Marquez to Gresini, but more recent reports from Speedweek suggest that, in fact, they will rejoin the Tech3 team that they sponsored in 2019 and 2020. So, we might expect something like ‘Red Bull Tech3 GasGas Factory Racing’ to launch with its riders 2022 Moto2 World Champion Augusto Fernandez and 2023 Moto2 World Champion Pedro Acosta on 29 January.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP - 5 February
Yamaha’s next up on 5 February, which is the day after the end of the Sepang Shakedown test. That means it will be a Malaysia launch for Yamaha, as both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins will be able to ride in the Shakedown thanks to MotoGP’s new concession rules. What Yamaha brings to Malaysia will be important, far more important than its team launch event, because it needs to show Quartararo that it is worth remaining with Yamaha, and not moving to Ducati or Aprilia or Honda instead.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 12 February
What about KTM? Well, Quartararo won’t move there, and neither will Marc Marquez in 2025. KTM will promote Pedro Acosta to the factory team next year, in all likelihood, and Brad Binder is tied up in orange until 2026. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team launch on 12 February, after the conclusion of the Sepang test, will probably be the beginning of Jack Miller’s final season in orange, then. Well, nothing is certain in sports, especially motorcycle sports, but for saying a wheel hasn’t yet turned in 2024, it seems about as sure a thing as a thing can be.
Repsol Honda Team - 13 February
Honda will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the partnership between its factory premier class Grand Prix team (the partnership predates the MotoGP era) and the Spanish oil company Repsol this year. A change of livery convention has been teased by the team. We hope that a Valencia 2008 style will be in use all season, but that seems unlikely.
Unfortunately, so does a return to Doohan-era navy in place of the white background that has been used on Repsol Hondas since 2013. But there does seem to be more blue coming, so let’s see.
Either way, Repsol Honda will launch on 13 February with its new rider line-up of Joan Mir and Luca Marini, who is the first non-Spaniard to ride for the team on a full-time basis since Casey Stoner in 2012, as much as Stefan Bradl's replacement of Marc Marquez became a full-time effort in 2020.
LCR Honda - 15 February
LCR Honda is next up, with its half-refreshed roster of Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco. LCR retains the distinction of being the only MotoGP team to have two different liveries across its side of the garage, so you’ll get double the value when it launches on 15 February.
Aprilia Racing - 18 February
The factory Aprilia team will go next on 18 February, for what will surely be the last season of the Aleix Espargaro-Maverick Vinales partnership, unless one of them goes on a title tilt. The RS-GP is a great bike, but so far neither Vinales nor Espargaro has proven capable of mounting a championship charge aboard it.
Pramac Racing - 28 February
That leaves one team: Pramac, so maybe we were saving the best for last after all.
Certainly, you can argue that Pramac has the fastest MotoGP rider in Jorge Martin, and there’s little to suggest the #89 won’t be able to repeat his title challenge of 2023 in the upcoming season. He will have the same machinery as reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia, as he has since he joined MotoGP in 2021, and the motivation of feeling like nobody wants him, because Ducati has probably made clear by now that it doesn’t really want him in the factory team having turned him away twice in two years.
Franco Morbidelli joins Martin in 2024, hoping to return to the race-winning form he showed in 2020 when he won three races and finished second in the championship.
The Italo-Spanish line-up will conclude the 2024 MotoGP launch season on 28 February. We’ll call that fashionably late.
Two weeks will then go by before the first Grand Prix weekend of the season on 8-10 March in Qatar.
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Lead image credit: Trackhouse Racing/X.
