Di Giannantonio will join factory KTM for 2027 MotoGP switch
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 4, 2026
A new factory role
Fabio Di Giannantonio is headed to KTM’s official MotoGP team in 2027, a switch that will take him away from his VR46 Ducati ride and into a factory seat built for him. The move will close a five-year stretch with Ducati-based teams, first at Gresini and then at VR46, and it will give him his first race bike from a different manufacturer in his career. Di Giannantonio made clear that the decision comes from the opportunity to ride for a full factory team, not from chasing the bike that looks strongest right now. He said the timing fits the stage of his career and gives him a chance to move from a satellite role to the main rider for a brand. At VR46, he said, he is the team’s top rider but not Ducati’s top rider. At KTM, he expects a different kind of position, one with direct involvement and a clearer line into the project’s direction.
KTM factory appeal
Di Giannantonio framed the KTM move as a career decision built around support, influence and fit. He said the factory deal offers the best support and the most direct influence on bike development. He also said the move will place him inside a project shaped specifically for him, rather than one that asks him to work around parts designed for other riders. That point mattered to him. “At KTM, I won’t have to maximize the pieces developed for others anymore,” Di Giannantonio said. He described that difference as a major reason for the switch, since a factory seat brings the kind of backing a rider can build around over the long term. He said the appeal goes beyond machinery alone. The chance to be the lead rider for a manufacturer matters to him after years of adapting to Ducati-based equipment and structures that were not built with him at the center. The KTM plan will give him that chance, and it comes at a moment when MotoGP is about to change in a major way.
VR46 farewell
The move away from VR46 will be the hard part for Di Giannantonio. He called it really difficult because the team saved and changed his career. He said he thinks every day about how difficult it will be to leave VR46 Racing, a sign of how strong the ties have become in the garage and beyond it. Di Giannantonio went even further in describing what the team has meant to him, calling VR46 “the best environment I’ve ever been in,” and saying it gave him everything. He pointed to the personal bonds he formed there as something he had never experienced before. Those relationships make the departure more than a simple contract move. They make it a break from a setting that helped him rebuild and grow. He also said he is especially grateful to Valentino Rossi, Uccio Salucci and Pablo Nieto for what they have done for him. The appreciation runs alongside the ambition. Di Giannantonio said the coming technical changes in MotoGP, including new 850 cc prototypes and revised regulations, make the timing important. He said the 2027 reset, along with new bikes and new tires, makes KTM the best decision for his career.
