Enea Bastianini will compete with Avintia Racing Ducati in the 2021 MotoGP World Championship for what will be his maiden campaign in the top flight.
The Italian makes his debut in MotoGP on the back of winning the 2020 Moto2 World Championship. He is also a runner-up in the Moto3 World Championship.
Signed to a Ducati contract, he will be paired with Luca Marini in an all-rookie line-up running two year-old GP19 machinery.
Enea Bastianini - Route to MotoGP
After several seasons honing his race craft in the feeder categories, Enea Bastianini will make his MotoGP debut in 2021 with Avintia Racing.
While it took him five seasons of Moto3 racing to step up to Moto2, Bastianini secured the intermediate class title at only his second attempt.
Indeed, one could say Bastianini deserved to step up to Moto2 - and therefore MotoGP - earlier than he did after securing third in the overall Moto3 standings as long ago as 2015 for what was his second season in the category.
Though he won only a single race, his consistency earned him a lofty finishing position, a strength that would be highlighted again in 2016 when he scored only one victory en route to the runners-up spot behind Brad Binder.
Despite these results, Bastianini would continue to spend the next two seasons in Moto3, managing just one more win with Leopard Racing in 2018 before eventually moving up to Moto2 in 2019.
Joining the Italtrans Racing Team, Bastianini was the standout rookie performer, proving a consistent top ten racer and peaking with a run to third at Brno. He’d end the year tenth in the standings, marginally behind top rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Sticking with Italtrans for 2020, Bastianini got his title winning campaign off to a good start by scoring two wins from the opening four races at Andalucia and Brno. Though he achieved just one more win - at Misano - he kept arch rival Luca Marini honest before the Italian lost his momentum in the closing stages of the year, while he’d repel a late charge from Sam Lowes when the Briton crashed in Valencia and injured himself.
As such, after a nervy final round showdown in Portimao, Bastianini’s fifth place finish would be enough to land him the title by nine points.
By that stage it had already been confirmed that he would be MotoGP bound for 2021 after signing a contract with Ducati and being placed at Avintia Racing.
