Nieto team ‘close’ to signing new deal with Ducati

Nieto MotoGP team boss Gino Borsoi says the Spanish outfit is “close” to agreeing a new deal with Ducati to run the Italian marque's machinery next year.

The Nieto team – formerly Aspar – returned to Ducati machinery for the 2016 season, having previously run Desmosedici's when it stepped up to the premier class in '10 and '11.

Currently, the team fields a year-old GP17 for Alvaro Bautista and a two-year-old GP16 for Karel Abraham.

In an interview with motogp.com, Borsoi confirmed the team had been in discussion with Yamaha – whose long-time partner Tech3 announced it would be switching to KTM machinery from '19 – but looks likely to agree a new deal with Ducati.

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It now also looks certain that Yamaha will supply the Marc VDS team with M1 next year, with current Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo reportedly linked to a return to the Japanese marque with the former Moto2 championship-winning team.

“It's a really crazy start to the season. It's really early, it's never happened before, and we start to decide now [our future plans],” Borsoi said.

“We don't know yet what is going on for the future, we started to talk with Yamaha and Ducati. We are really close to signing a deal, honestly, with Ducati for the future.

“We are happy with them, we are really happy with Ducati, they give us big support every race. So I think should be possible to continue with them.”

The Nieto team – who renamed itself in honour of the late 13-time champion Angel Nieto for this year – has endured a tough '18 campaign so far, with Bautista only managing 12 points and a best result of seventh in 18^th in the standings on a bike Pramac's Jack Miller has put inside the top six in the championship.

Abraham has so far scored just one point, but the financial backing he brings is thought to have made his position within the team for next year more secure than that of Bautista's.

Keen to promote a rider from the Moto2 class to partner an experienced rider in his team, Borsoi expects to know more about the '19 line-up “in a few races”.

“About the riders, we don't know yet about them,” he added.

“First we want to fix the bike, and then we start to talk with the riders. Honestly, this is our target, we are looking for a young rider from Moto2.

“We will want to have an experienced rider [also] in MotoGP. So, when? Maybe in a few races we will have a good idea about our riders for the future.”