Senna Agius is one signature away from becoming the only Australian on the 2027 MotoGP grid. The problem is that the man holding the pen has not decided anything yet.
Tech3 has emerged as the Camden rider's most realistic and possibly only route to the premier class next season, after both Pramac and Trackhouse looked elsewhere. Team principal Guenther Steiner has spent the summer working through a shortlist, and he has been unusually candid about how open it remains.
His preferred shape for the line-up is one rookie alongside one experienced rider. The rookie choice has narrowed to the Intact GP Moto2 pairing of Agius and Manu Gonzalez.
"They are my candidates," Steiner said. "If you know somebody else, maybe it would make my decision easier!"
Splitting them is the hard part. "I don't think there are any big cons to either of them," he said, "but who has more pluses at this point?"
Steiner's private view, reported through the paddock, is that consistency is the one thing Agius still lacks. He also believes 2027 is an unusually good year to gamble on a rookie, because the switch to 850cc machinery, the ban on ride-height devices and the move to Pirelli tyres reset everyone's reference points at once.
What has effectively been settled is who will not be there. Steiner has all but ruled out both Maverick Vinales and Brad Binder, and his reasoning was less about lap time than about atmosphere.
"Again, there's a long history there, and somehow, sometimes you need to start afresh, not to carry too much over," he said of Binder. "We don't want any, what do you call it, old baggage."
On Vinales, whose relationship with KTM has played out publicly and badly, Steiner was similarly direct: "We are still working with KTM in the future, I don't think he feels happy in the [KTM] stable."
The veteran slot appears to be tilting towards Luca Marini. "I didn't know Luca before, and I think he's a very pleasant guy," Steiner said. "Obviously he has got lots of experience, and maybe he can help us to get better. Could he be an asset to the team? Maybe yes."
He then applied the brakes to all of it: "But we have not made the final decision, just to be clear, about what we are going to do."
Agius, for his part, has changed his own assessment considerably. A year ago he was openly cautious about promotion, telling journalist Adam Wheeler: "To make the jump next year? I would say I'm not quite ready at the moment. The more competitive you can be in Moto2 and the better shape you are when you compete there, the better."
That hedging is gone. "If I had to name my biggest goal, it would be to ride in MotoGP next year," he said recently, while refusing to let the speculation bleed into his day job.
"I'm happy to talk about it, but it's also closely tied to what I'm currently doing in Moto2, and if I don't fully concentrate on that, the results won't come and my chances will be jeopardised."
The competition is real. Daniel Holgado, Izan Guevara and David Alonso are all expected to graduate for 2027, and between them the two Spaniards and the Colombian hold two world titles and wins in both Moto3 and Moto2.
Jack Miller, whose own future is unresolved, has been talking up the broader Australian pipeline rather than treating Agius as an isolated case.
"Senna Agius is doing a fantastic job," Miller said. "We've also got a few youngsters coming through from the Red Bull Rookies Cup, and Joel Kelso is there in Moto3."
"We've got a rider in every category, which is rather nice," he added. "It comes and goes depending on the era. These two have managed to do it the hard way, just like me."
Whether that pipeline reaches MotoGP in 2027 now rests largely with Steiner.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/agius-waits-as-steiner-weighs-tech3s-2027-motogp-rookie-call). Visit for full coverage.*