December has just begun and at the moment we only know that the MotoE 2024 will have nine teams and eighteen riders while it is not yet clear who will take the place left empty by the RNF team.
MotoE 2024: teams that go, teams that arrive. Usually at this time of year the line-up of the various classes of the MotoGP World Championship is closed, waiting to start the first test of the new season in February. Instead, these days, several twists are shaking up the drivers' list when we are now in December. The most important and surprising news was that of the CryptoDATA RNF team was expelled from the World Championship by the decision of the FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports. The decision was made to “the repeated infringements and violations of the Participation Agreement which affected the public image of MotoGP” by the CryptoDATA RNF team.
There were two teams affected by the measure, the MotoGP team, which managed the two Aprilia motorbikes of Miquel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, and the MotoE, with the two Ducati V21Ls of Andrea Mantovani and Mika Perez and the crew chief Ramon Forcada. Most likely, nothing will change for the MotoGP team, which will be transferred under new management, while the most critical situation is being experienced by the MotoE team. For 2024, RNF had reached an agreement with Andrea Mantovani, winner of two races in 2023 at Mugello and in Barcelona, and with Nicholas Spinelli, an excellent young rookie of the MotoE who in 2023 had raced together with Mattia Casadei in the PONS team, winning the last race in Misano.
Sito Pons' team, after 42 seasons spent in the MotoGP World Championship, had announced its farewell last August and for this reason Spinelli had chosen to move to the RNF team. Starting in 2024, PONS Racing slots in Moto2 and MotoE will become the property of the MT Helmets – MSi team, which this year participated in the Moto3 World Championship. The MT Helmets team announced its two riders for the MotoE 2024: Miquel Pons (3 years in MotoE with the LCR team) and Oscar Gutierrez.
Making the scenario even more intricate was the separation between the PrüstelGP team and CF Moto in Moto3, announced two days before the end of the 2023 championship. According to what was reported by the Italian Sky Sport MotoGP website, CF Moto will sponsor the Aspar team in Moto2 while the PrüstelGP team will not participate in the Moto3 World Championship in 2024 but will instead take over the RNF team in MotoE. If this were the case, the new team would have to decide whether to reach an agreement with Mantovani and Spinelli, left without a bike by RNF, or choose other riders. Another rider left without a bike for now is Riccardo Rossi, who had signed with the PrüstelGP team for the 3 Moto2024 World Championship. What is certain at present is that the MotoE 2024 will be with nine teams and eighteen riders.
As for the other teams in MotoE, in addition to MT Helmets – MSi which we have already talked about, at the moment only two teams have announced their 2024 riders. One is the FELO Gresini Racing team, which has confirmed Matteo Ferrari and Alessio Finello and the other is Intact GP which has chosen Lukas Tulovic alongside Hectro Garzò. Lastly, the LCR E-Team has renewed the agreement with Eric Granado while he has not yet announced who his teammate will be for 2024.
Photos: MotoGP
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