The 2026 MotoGP season is still in its 'shakedown' phase - but the 2027 rider market has roared into life, with the news key player Fabio Quartararo may have committed to a blockbuster Honda move.
Motorsport.com Spain's Uri Puigdemont has broken the news that Quartararo will part with Yamaha after seven eight years (and a world title) on the various iterations of the Yamaha M1, to instead campaign Honda's new 850cc machine next year.
While the Quartararo news awaits confirmation, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Diogo Moreira and Johann Zarco are the three riders officially known to have contracts for 2027, though the exact seats in their manufacturers’ rosters that those contracts will translate to aren't assured.
Beyond that, it was set to be a total free-for-all - but an early commitment for Quartararo could accelerate movement even further. As KTM team manager Aki Ajo put it: "Of course, for sure everyone knows there are two-three names that maybe start to move first, and this is like a domino effect for others as well."
Quartararo was one of those "two-three names". If he's committed, here are five more major silly season questions that should get their answer sooner rather than later - perhaps even before any racing has actually taken place.
Has Ducati got it done with Marquez?
Ducati has very clearly set out its stall during its Madonna di Campiglio launch event: it is heavily prioritising a new two-year deal for Marc Marquez, and wants to get it done before a wheel has been turned in anger this season.
Marquez himself sounded amenable if not 100% committed. Honda had lingered onm the horizon as an attractive, sentimental alternative - but Marquez did make it clear he favours stability and is happy at Ducati, and a Quartararo move by Honda would suggest no chase after Marquez (even if that would be one incredible line-up).
Presumably, for this deal it is just a matter of being announced.
Will Acosta get his big move?
Aprilia boss Massimo Rivola's claim to Moto.it during his factory team's launch that Pedro Acosta wanted Ducati and that an Acosta-Marquez pairing was the likeliest outcome has made it open season on reporting and speculation over a potential Spanish superteam in Ducati’s works squad.
Motorsport.com Spain reported in the aftermath that Acosta indeed wants Ducati and that Ducati is amenable.
Ducati's own denials have not sounded overwhelmingly convincing. And while 'stashing' Acosta on a satellite team on a factory contract is an alternative route that would allow Ducati to keep two-time champion Pecco Bagnaia on the books, that feels too complicated - expensive salary-wise, less accommodating to Acosta and a bit out of line with the ruthlessness Ducati tends to operate with on the rider market.
Acosta batted off a 2027 question during the launch of his current employer KTM's 2026 programme.
"I think today is not the day to talk about that,” he said. “We are in the KTM presentation today. Let's try to be focused on '26 - and then '27 will be a question mark for everyone."
He also spoke very positively of KTM's off-season efforts to make 2026 a success.
And team manager Ajo said that Rivola's prediction of Acosta moving to Ducati was likely "gambling".
"I don't think he's talking too openly about his own offers or whatever!" Ajo stressed.
But KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer did admit KTM hasn't done enough yet to keep Acosta. He has not publicly given up on doing so - banking on a good showing from the new RC16 in testing - yet the feeling is KTM is not the favourite for Acosta's 2027-28 services, if it's still in the running at all.
Will KTM secure its Acosta fallback?
A report by Spanish publication AS claimed earlier this month that KTM has already made its peace with losing Acosta to Ducati (or maybe Honda, though the Quartararo news would make that less likely) and has zeroed in on its current Tech3 rider Maverick Vinales as its 2027 priority signing.
It might be early to make such a commitment to a rider who hasn't raced fit since last summer, but whenever you hear KTM figures talk about Vinales, you know it rings very, very true.
Vinales' influence in helping steer the whole programme out of its early-2025 dejection of financial hardships and underwhelming on-track results keeps coming up, again and again, often unprompted.
His reputation following the infamous manner of his Yamaha exit is a bit that of a mercurial, exhausting diva - yet there is an unmistakable, reciprocated admiration between KTM and Vinales.
"I see Maverick really good at the moment, I would say that I see the best version of Maverick at the moment," said Ajo, who was Vinales's manager a decade ago.
"When he was young, Maverick was quite an impulsive young boy, and changed his mind quite often. And what I really like is that he really understands and sees really well how he is now and he was when he was young.
"He's really open and honest about his mistakes - everyone has done mistakes during their career, and he's very open about this. And trying to take from all the mistakes, let's say, collect and take it for learning."
Ajo said he admires the "maximum", ultra-hard-working version of Vinales he's found at KTM, yet stressed: "There is also this sympathetic Maverick, this big-heart family man, and I always mention to him that you have to keep it also, that you have to keep these things in balance."
Does it probably help Vinales' perception at KTM that he is the best and by far the most talented rider who it can realistically convince for 2027-28 while memory of its financial troubles still remains, and while the 2027 programme is still unconfirmed (even though Beirer is adamant that Bajaj has signed off and that the 850cc prototype is proof)? Yes. It probably does.
But that only makes a renewal that works for both sides more likely.
What does Yamaha do now?
Yamaha boss Paolo Pavesio had made it as clear as he can that his company is happy to adopt a wait-and-see approach to the rider market, and that retaining Quartararo was a priority but not to the point of desperation.
But it's one thing to say it and another thing to live it. If Yamaha has already lost its talisman, it would be truly brave to try to stay the course rather than try to quickly manoeuvre for a big-name replacement to soften the blow.
Is there a swift move to be made for someone like Jorge Martin - whose Aprilia journey increasingly looks like a road to nowhere - or even Pecco Bagnaia? And if there is, can Yamaha truly bide its time and play the market?
Is Aprilia the only player for Bezzecchi?
In addition to the Ducati line-up claim, Rivola had during the Aprilia launch said his riders were being made big-money offers by Japanese manufacturers (which would logically mean both Honda and Yamaha, despite Yamaha's claims of focusing on bike over market right now).
Perhaps the most intriguing question is whether Rivola's reference to riders - plural - was deliberate. Which is to say, is Marco Bezzecchi fielding offers, and can Aprilia, which is very openly keen on continuing with him for 2027-28, fight them off if so?
Bezzecchi continuing at Aprilia appears to be the unspoken assumption as far as 2027 scenarios currently floated are concerned, and indeed it would be far from surprising if the two sides announced an extension before the Thailand opener.
But Bezzecchi also may well be the fourth- or fifth-most attractive free agent around following his superb second half of 2025, and if the likes of Quartararo, Marquez and Acosta are taken off the board his pull might suddenly be second to none.
So the likes of Yamaha - and Honda still - could do a lot worse than to try to turn his head with the hopes of tapping into this high-upside talent Aprilia has been harnessing so well as of late.
