Davide Brivio has been announced as leaving the Trackhouse Aprilia MotoGP team at the end of the 2026 MotoGP season, ahead of a widely reported move to Honda.

Brivio's impending exit has been among the MotoGP paddock's worst-kept secrets the last week or so, and has now been officially confirmed by the satellite Aprilia outfit.

The team says "Brivio’s departure decision has been taken in consultation with Trackhouse". It says its leadership succession plan is "currently developing" in the form of a "new structure".

Brivio had joined Trackhouse back in 2024, for his return to MotoGP after a complicated stint at the Alpine Formula 1 team, and oversaw the first two campaigns of the outfit - which had taken over the Aprilia satellite bike supply from the now-defunct RNF entity.

A first win came under his leadership in Phillip Island in 2025, and though that hasn't been repeated yet the team has had an extremely successful start to 2026, propelled forward by a particularly strong 2026 Aprilia RS-GP.

"It has been an important step in both my professional and personal journey and it also gave me the opportunity to add the new experience of leading an independent team," Brivio said.

"I am proud of the shared ambitions we pursued together and of having helped build a team with strong human and technical foundations.

"Together, we achieved important results that I will always carry with me as special memories."

Over at Honda, a change of position for long-time MotoGP team boss Alberto Puig was announced earlier this weekend - though it is being reported that Brivio (a MotoGP title-winning team boss with both Yamaha and Suzuki) won't necessarily take over Puig's role.

His decision to leave came as a big surprise to rider Raul Fernandez, who is expected to be retained by Trackhouse into 2027 - while team-mate Ai Ogura is off to ride for the factory Yamaha team.

Fernandez said he'd learned of Brivio's plans on Thursday at the French Grand Prix and struggled to cope with the news through the weekend.

"Sometimes I need to not think too much of these kinds of things that I cannot control," he lamented. "I don’t want to think what will happen with the team - because for sure Justin [Marks, team owner] will find everything, the best for the team. It’s something we cannot control, and I don’t have to think a lot on that.

"He has been a really important person for me. In the worst moment in my career, last year, he always tried to support me, always helped me to change the situation. For me he was a very important person in the team - but I think we still have a good bike, still the team is with Aprilia."