The Spaniard will bring the curtain down to his three-year stint with Aprilia, which has so far yielded one grand prix victory in Austin this year and a total of seven podium finishes.
He will join the structure currently managed in tandem by Tech3 and KTM’s parent company Pierer Mobility group, the team which currently competes under the GasGas banner.
He will be partnered at Tech3 by five-time grand prix winner Enea Bastianini, whose place in the factory Ducati team will be taken over by Marc Marquez next season.
As announced previously, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta will race in the factory team, although KTM intends to put four identical bikes on track this year between its two teams.
With Vinales now poised to join KTM, it means Aprilia will lose both its current factory riders, with Aleix Espargaro having already announced his decision to retire from MotoGP at the end of the year. Motorsport.com understands he will move to Honda in a test rider role next year.
Initially, Vinales’ intention was to explore the possibility of extending his contract with Aprilia, which handed him a reprieve in 2021 following his acrimonious split from Yamaha. However, the Noale-based brand preferred to wait for Espargaro to decide his future, before sitting down with Vinales to negotiate a contract.
Things took a turn on Monday after the Italian Grand Prix when Aprilia announced it had signed Jorge Martin from Pramac, at great expense, after Ducati chose Marquez as Francesco Bagnaia’s team-mate for 2025-26.
