Aron Canet 2026 saga ends as contract signed to join new Moto2 team

Marc VDS has announced the signing of Aron Canet for the 2026 season on a multi-year contract.

The statement announcing the signature of the Spanish rider from Marc VDS only mentions that he will join the “Elf Marc VDS project starting from 2026”, with no specific mention of Moto2, although with the team expected to only field one bike in WorldSBK next year, to be piloted by Sam Lowes.

The Belgian team will be Canet’s fourth in the intermediate grand prix class, after riding for Aspar, Pons, and now the Fantic squad. It’s a move that will mean a return to the Boscoscuro chassis, which the Valencian last rode in 2021 with the Aspar squad.

Canet currently sits second in the 2025 Moto2 riders’ standings, 25 points behind Manuel Gonzalez ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. The 2026 season will be the 25-year-old’s eighth in the Moto2 World Championship.

Canet is expected to replace Jake Dixon in the Belgian team’s Moto2 squad, with the British rider expected to join Honda’s World Superbike project next season although his departure from Marc VDS has not yet been confirmed.

Canet himself was rumoured to be heading to WorldSBK in 2026 with BMW, which recently signed Danilo Petrucci to replace the MotoGP-bound Toprak Razgatlioglu. The confirmation of Canet’s non-arrival at BMW for next year theoretically strengthens the position of Michael van der Mark in the Bavarian squad, although a renewal for the Dutchman has not yet been signed and is not a certainty.

Although he will not be heading there for next season, Canet’s move within Moto2 keeps the WorldSBK door open for him beyond next year thanks to Marc VDS’s presence in the production derivative paddock, where in 2026 it contest its third season with the Ducati Panigale and the aforementioned Lowes.