Ducati runners eye Tech3's Yamahas

On Thursday, it was announced that the 18-year relationship between Yamaha and its sole satellite team, Tech3, will end after the 2018 campaign as Tech3 has found a so-far-unnamed new partner.

It leaves Yamaha needing to find an alternative partner to ensure it maintains a four-bike presence on the 2019 grid, while opening up an opportunity for other satellite teams to bid for the opportunity to lease a pair of year-old M1s.

Both Nieto (formerly Aspar, pictured above) and Avintia, which currently run a 2017 and a '16-spec Ducati each, have indicated to Autosport they would be interested in taking over Tech3's supply of Yamahas.

Marc VDS could also enter the bidding, having made it clear in the past that it is unhappy with the state of its relationship with Honda following Jack Miller's defection to the Ducati camp last year.

But a Marc VDS spokesperson emphasised to Autosport that "what we want is to link ourselves to a manufacturer which offers us a long-term project".

This could be a veiled reference to the fact that the two satellite Yamahas could ultimately end up with Valentino Rossi and his VR46 operation when the seven-time MotoGP champion decides to retire from racing.

Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta told Autosport last year that Rossi's team would be guaranteed a grid slot if it wanted to step up to MotoGP, despite the current cap of 24 entries.

Should Rossi make the transition from rider to team boss, it seems unlikely he would collaborate with anyone but Yamaha, especially given his past relationships with rival marques Honda and Ducati.

Equally, both Honda and Ducati now have clearly established secondary teams in the form of LCR and Pramac respectively, which both run riders that are contracted directly to their factories.