The 2006 world champion has been a factory Ducati rider since ’09, when he joined from Honda.

Ducati has struggled in recent seasons and has not won a race since Casey Stoner’s triumph in the 2010 Australian Grand Prix.

Reports of a change in the rider line-up surfaced earlier this week, and Hayden acknowledged at Laguna Seca on Thursday that he would not be retained.

“I’m not coming back to Ducati in MotoGP. They’ve chosen to go a different way,” he said.

“Unfortunately these results the last few years haven’t been what we hoped. Nobody likes to get sacked, but that’s what happens.”

Hayden has only taken three podium finishes in his five and a half seasons with Ducati, the last of them at Jerez in 2011.

His last race victories came during his title-winning season in 2006.

The 31-year-old American moved into MotoGP with Honda in 2003 straight from the AMA Superbike series in his homeland.