The Aspar MotoGP team has confirmed a principle agreement with the Sepang Circuit to take over its grid slots in 2019 has been agreed, laying the foundations for the Petronas Yamaha outfit.
Yamaha's 20-year partnership with the Tech3 team will come to an end this season, with the French squad in a factory tie-up with KTM for the next three years starting in 2019.
Originally, the vacant M1s were thought to be going to the Marc VDS team, but it looked set instead to become a Suzuki customer before internal troubles saw that deal also disappear.
Talk of the Sepang International Circuit – who has teams in Moto3 and Moto2 – fielding a Petronas-backed team in the premier class running Yamaha machinery has been around for some time, with outgoing Honda man Dani Pedrosa and current Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli expected to form its line-up.
It was expected SIC would take over the place of Aspar – which changed its name to Angel Nieto Racing for this year in tribute to the late Spanish 13-time champion – with the team confirming an “agreement in principle” was reached on Thursday morning via Twitter.
The brief statement read: “Angel Nieto Racing Team (ANRT) and Sepang International Circuit (SIC) in principle have reached an agreement by which, from the 2019 MotoGP season, SIC will take over the two MotoGP class entries for the ANRT.”
Nieto team owner Jorge Martinez 'Aspar' – who has run a premier class outfit since 2010 – will remain with the SIC squad as sporting advisor, though no other current team personnel have had their futures confirmed yet.
While nothing has been confirmed between Yamaha and SIC, it is thought a deal has been finalised, with an announcement expected soon.
Pedrosa announced on Tuesday that he has reached a decision regarding his future, and will announce his plans next weekend at the Sachsenring.
While strongly linked to the team since confirming his departure from Honda following the Italian Grand Prix, it is still though retirement could be an option for the Spaniard following a difficult run of late.
Should he ultimately decline to continue his MotoGP career, current Nieto rider Alvaro Bautista and outgoing KTM man Bradley Smith are thought to be the next in line to join Morbidelli next year.
With the Marc VDS team likely to disappear from the grid at the end of the year, the grid size in MotoGP will shrink to 22 for the 2019 campaign.
