FEBVRE SIGNS WITH DUCATI FACTORY TEAM

Ducati has signed reigning MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre to a two-year factory deal aboard the Desmo450 MX — the same platform now on the floor in Australian dealers. For a marque still relatively new to the premier class, it’s about as loud a statement of intent as they come.

Just how serious is Ducati about turning the Desmo450 MX into a genuine force in world motocross? Serious enough to lock in the reigning MXGP World Champion for the next two seasons. Ducati Corse Off-Road has confirmed that France’s Romain Febvre will line up for the Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team in 2027 and 2028 – and for a marque still relatively new to the premier class, that’s about as loud a statement of intent as you can make. Febvre is no makeweight signing, either. The 34-year-old is a two-time MXGP champion (2015 and 2025), with 26 Grand Prix wins, 97 podiums and four Motocross of Nations successes on his CV. Pairing that pedigree with Ducati’s factory effort – run by team manager Louis Vosters – gives the Italians a genuine title contender aboard the Desmo450 MX from day one.

For Aussie readers, the tie-in is a neat one. The Desmo450 MX that Febvre will be racing and developing at the sharp end of MXGP is the same platform now sitting on the floor in Ducati Australia dealers – the very bike Transmoto test rider John Prutti recently put through its paces. When the bloke racing your local showroom model is the reigning world champ, it doesn’t hurt the sales pitch.

No word yet on what the signing means for the rest of Ducati’s factory MXGP line-up, or whether any of it filters down to the Australian racing scene. But as a marker of how quickly Ducati’s off-road program is growing up, snaring a reigning world champ takes some beating.