The FIM circulated the starting lists for the 2020 World Cup and Johann Zarco’s name did not appear. For now, Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham are listed under Team Avintia, while Team Marc VDS has an empty seat next to their second driver’s name after losing Alex Marquez.
The Frenchman has not yet decided what his future will be, but the only way to stay in MotoGP is to accept Gigi Dall’Igna’s offer to move to Avintia. Otherwise he would have to return to Moto2 (with Marc VDS) and try to win his third title in the intermediate class.
Aside from this unsolved problem, the starting list for the reigning class is as expected. As this year, there will be six Italian drivers, namely Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Iannone, Franco Morbidelli and Pecco Bagnaia.
There is also a strong Italian presence in Moto2, with Lorenzo Baldassarri, Luca Marini, Nicolò Bulega, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Simone Corsi, Enea Bastianini, Stefano Manzi and Marco Bezzecchi.
There are seven Italians on the Moto3 list, namely Dennis Foggia, Celestino Vietti, Tony Artbolino, Andrea Migno, Niccolò Antonelli, Romano Fenati and Stefano Nepa.
An interesting fact: Team Prustel GP has hired Barry Baltus, a very young Belgian rider who will only turn 16 on May 3rd, which means he will not be able to compete in the World Championship before that date.
