The 2026 MotoGP grid holds eleven teams, twenty-two riders and five manufacturers. Read through a brand’s eyes it is not a sporting list: it is a commercial map, in which every garage has a title sponsor, an inventory of spaces and a different entry threshold.
Updated September 2026.
Anyone watching MotoGP as a fan sees two riders per team. Anyone watching it as an investor sees a three-tier structure that sets how much entry costs, how much visibility it buys and how much room there is to negotiate. The first thing to understand, before the names, is how that structure works.
How the grid is organised: factory, satellite, independent
Factory teams are run directly by the manufacturer, which controls budget, bikes and communication. They are the brand’s technology showcases and they carry the most expensive and most rigid commercial inventories, because every space has to coexist with the manufacturer’s own requirements.
Satellite teams race manufacturer bikes but are independent companies with their own profit and loss account to close. This is where most real sponsorship negotiations happen, because the team needs sponsors to exist and not merely to improve its margin. Independent teams with technical agreements, finally, are the most flexible on packages and the most willing to build bespoke activations.
The distinction matters more than the standings. A brand looking for title sponsorship finds open doors in the second and third groups; a brand seeking association with the manufacturer has to deal with the first, at different prices.
The eleven teams of the 2026 season
The 2026 grid fields twenty-two riders on Ducati, KTM, Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda machinery. Team by team, with the title sponsor already visible in the name:
- Ducati Lenovo Team (Ducati factory): Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. Title sponsor Lenovo, one of the most cited tech partnerships in motorsport.
- Aprilia Racing (Aprilia factory): Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi.
- Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (KTM factory): Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta.
- Red Bull KTM Tech3 (KTM satellite): Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini.
- Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (Yamaha factory): Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins.
- Prima Pramac Yamaha (Yamaha satellite): Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu, three times Superbike world champion (2021, 2024 and 2025) on his premier class debut.
- Honda HRC Castrol (Honda factory): Luca Marini and Joan Mir.
- LCR Honda (Honda satellite): Johann Zarco, entered as Castrol Honda LCR, and rookie Diogo Moreira, the reigning Moto2 champion, entered as Pro Honda LCR.
- BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP (Ducati satellite): Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer.
- Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team (Ducati satellite): Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli.
- SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team (Aprilia satellite): Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura. SuperFile became title sponsor in June 2026.
Running down the names shows something fans miss and insiders do not: half the grid carries a sponsor’s brand before the manufacturer’s. Lenovo, Red Bull, Monster Energy, Prima, Pertamina Enduro, Castrol, BK8 and SuperFile are not decoration, they are contracts that define the team’s commercial identity for the whole season.
What a sponsor actually buys
Inside every team the inventory is layered. Title sponsorship puts the brand in the official team name and therefore in every television, print and classification mention: it is the only tier that buys language, not just surface. Below it sit premium positions on the fairing and the front cowl, the rider’s leathers and helmet, the pit wall, the hospitality structure, image rights for corporate communication and digital activation on the team’s channels.
Each of these elements has a different price and, above all, a different duration of effect. The fairing works during the race weekend, image rights work all year long inside the company’s campaigns. That is the difference between buying exposure and buying a communication asset, and we have devoted a full analysis to what is worth sponsoring between rider, team, race and championship.
The championship numbers behind the prices
MotoGP closed 2025 with its most followed season ever. Total circuit attendance rose from 3.03 to 3.6 million spectators across twenty-two races, with nine attendance records broken and an all time high at the French Grand Prix, 311,797 people over one weekend. Television audiences grew by an average of 9% per Grand Prix, sprint races by 26%, engagement across social channels climbed to 61% with more than 60 million followers, and fans consumed over one billion minutes on the official YouTube channel. The global fanbase reached 632 million people, 12% more than in 2024.
Those numbers are why 2026 rates sit above those of three seasons ago, and also why they remain defensible: cost per contact keeps falling while absolute values rise. For anyone assessing entry, the right question is not whether MotoGP is expensive, but whether audience growth is already fully priced into the package on the table. In most satellite team cases, it is not yet.
How to get into a MotoGP team
Commercial windows follow a precise calendar. The following season is built between summer and autumn, when teams close budgets and define which spaces are still free; anyone arriving in January almost always finds residual inventory and little room to negotiate bespoke activation. A well built entry starts from a stated marketing objective, not from a visibility tier: opening an Asian market, running hospitality with a distributor network and sourcing content for internal communication are three different goals.
The team is chosen from there, not the other way round. The commercial portfolio of the works teams, which we analysed in detail in our study of the 2026 MotoGP factory teams, shows how different the existing sponsor profile is in each garage, and therefore how much real space is left for a new brand without category conflicts. Our MotoGP sponsorship pages collect the available packages, while the 2026 calendar is there to cross races against the markets the brand wants to be present in.
A grid of eleven teams means twenty-two bikes, twenty-two sets of leathers and eleven different hospitality units on which to build a programme. The hard part is not finding space: it is choosing which space will still be working for the company once the engines are switched off on Sunday evening.
Sources: MotoGP, record breaking growth in 2025 · MotoGP, 2025 attendance passes 3.6 million · MotoGP, official teams · MotoGP, rider list
Frequently asked questions
How many teams and riders are there in MotoGP in 2026?
The 2026 grid has eleven teams and twenty-two riders, on Ducati, KTM, Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda machinery. Each team fields two riders, and the entries split between factory squads run by the manufacturer and satellite teams racing the same bikes.
What is the difference between a factory and a satellite team for a sponsor?
A factory team is run directly by the manufacturer and carries more expensive, more rigid commercial inventory, because every space coexists with the brand’s own needs. A satellite team is an independent company racing manufacturer bikes and needs sponsors to exist: that is where most real negotiations happen and where packages are most flexible.
What does a MotoGP title sponsorship include?
Title sponsorship places the brand inside the official team name, and therefore in every television, print and classification mention for the whole season. It is the only tier that buys language rather than surface alone, which is why its price sits well apart from fairing or leathers positions.
What are MotoGP's audience numbers?
In 2025 MotoGP recorded 3.6 million spectators at circuits against 3.03 million the previous year, nine attendance records and an all time high in France with 311,797 people. Television audiences grew by an average of 9% per Grand Prix, sprints by 26%, and the global fanbase reached 632 million people, 12% more than in 2024.
When should a brand start negotiating MotoGP sponsorship?
Between the summer and the autumn of the previous season, when teams set budgets and identify the spaces still available. Arriving in January usually means residual inventory and little scope for bespoke activation, because the best positions have already been allocated.
