Gresini MotoGP rider Fermin Aldeguer will miss the opening round of the 2026 season as he continues his recovery from a leg fracture in the off-season.
Aldeguer broke his left femur in a training accident at the start of January, so missed the opening pre-season test at Sepang and was always a long shot to make either the second test in Buriram or the Thailand Grand Prix at the same track.
He and his Gresini team have now accepted defeat in terms of him being fit in time for either. Aldeguer will now presumably target appearing at the second round of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix three weeks after the Thailand opener, though this hasn't been confirmed by Gresini.
In addition to having his start of the season compromised, Aldeguer has also had no opportunity to improve his current standing on MotoGP's frenzied 2027 rider market.
His employer Ducati, which contracts him to ride for Gresini, is already thought to have moved for a 2027-28 line-up of Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta, the latter something of a personal rival of Aldeguer's (with both hailing from the Murcia region of Spain).
Being undercut by Acosta from outside the Ducati rider roster may sting, but might be an easier pill to swallow with Aldeguer currently in recovery from a serious injury - and with his own medium-term future in MotoGP seemingly in no question.
Ducati had originally signed him on a 2+2 deal for MotoGP, and picking up the two extra years and keeping Aldeguer at a satellite team seems a no-brainer for the manufacturer - and a satisfactory enough outcome for the rapid but still raw Spanish prospect.
Ducati's 39-year-old tester Michele Pirro will ride in Aldeguer's stead in Buriram. It means Pirro will be up to 15 consecutive seasons of at least one MotoGP start.
It will be a new colour for him at Ducati, Pirro having already raced for the likes of the factory team, Avintia, Pramac, VR46 and the Aruba.it-backed test team as a wildcard.
But he did spend three years as a Gresini rider across 2010-12, initially in Moto2 and then on a CRT-class Honda-engined FTR bike.
