Jorge Lorenzo has finally decided to cut ties with the Italo-Japanese Movistar Yamaha factory team after the completion of the 2016 season of the MotoGP World Championship. Since his first association with Yamaha in 2008, the racer has won three world titles (2010, 2012 and 2015), 41 races, and achieved 99 podiums out of the 141 races competed in across 8 seasons . The 2016 MotoGP championship marks the 9th and the final season of the racer and the team together, who will complete the remaining 15 rounds together. Following the separation with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, the 2017 and 2018 seasons will see the Spanish motorcycle racer joining hands with the Italian racing team for the world championship. The racer aims to join the likes of Rossi, Lawson, Stoner and Giacomo Agostini in taking premier class titles on two different makes of motorcycle.
Ducati and Jorge Lorenzo will team up in 2017 and 2018 with a mission to take over the MotoGP World Championship astride the Ducati Desmosedici GP of the Ducati Team. On the eve of round four, the Jerez GP of the 2016 championship, it was announced that Lorenzo would join Ducati for the 2017 and 2018 seasons as both parties look for a new challenge. Lorenzo and Luigi Dall’Igna will once again be working together, Dall’Igna having been heavily involved in both of Lorenzo’s 250cc titles with Aprilia.
Ducati expects Lorenzo to provide their team the much-needed bump boost and return them to regularly fighting for race wins. Since Dall’Igna joined Ducati, they have gone from strength to strength and gone from struggling for the top five to fighting for the podium consistently and from the new rider they expect their team to perform exceptionally better. As Lorenzo has never ridden a bike other than an M1 in MotoGP, he will have to step up to get accustomed to the Ducati Desmosedici GP.
Yamaha has already reconfirmed Valentino Rossi for 2017-18 seasons and will announce the future Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team riders’ line-up in due course after securing the services of the second rider.