“We talked a lot in the past” - Enea Bastianini reveals long-running Aprilia MotoGP interest

Enea Bastianini, who will become an Aprilia rider with Trackhouse next season, has revealed he first held talks with the factory as far back as his rookie 2020 MotoGP campaign.

At that time, however, Aprilia was ranked last rather than first among the premier-class constructors.

Instead, Bastianini chose a seat at Avintia, from where he worked his way up the Ducati hierarchy to the factory team for 2023 and 2024.

Although a seven-time winner on a Desmosedici, Bastianini was unable to mount a title challenge and lost his seat to Marc Marquez for the start of last season.

That again put Bastianini on Aprilia’s radar, but this time he chose a KTM seat at Tech3.

However, the Italian had no doubts about the bike he wanted to be on in 2027.

“To be honest, we talked a lot in the past. Also when I swapped from Moto2 to MotoGP,” Bastianini confirmed at Aragon on Thursday.

“But this year, we talk more! Starting from the first race. We waited a long time for the announcement. But my mind was clear.”

The Italian’s best results in orange are a podium at Catalunya last season and a Sprint rostrum at COTA this year.

Bastianini, currently 12th in the world championship, said the lack of progress since 2025 was a significant factor in his switch.

“I have a very good relationship with Tech3 and every person inside the box and when you need to do a change it is always complicated,” Bastianini said at Aragon on Thursday.

“I thought about my future very early this year, from the first race, because I saw a lot of potential on the Aprilia bikes and I thought it could be my future.

“Finally, on Monday we announced with Trackhouse and I am very excited for that.

“Next year we have different bikes, different tyre and it will change a lot. But I think I can be competitive.

“I need to be honest; we did not find a lot of speed from last year to now.

“Sometimes with my crew chief and all the technicians of KTM we find it.

“But not in every situation and for this I made the decision to change for the future.”