Valentino Rossi’s VR46 squad made its MotoGP premier class debut in 2022 after agreeing a cope with Ducati for one factory-specification bike that went to Luca Marini, and a year-old bike that went to Marco Bezzecchi.
Motorsport.com understands that VR46 has the choice to resume with Ducati for 2025 and 2026, with the choice set to run out on the finish of Might, however the group must accept two year-old Desmosedici bikes for its riders.
Regardless of having maintained contacts with KTM, the clearest different has all the time been Yamaha, given Rossi’s historic connection to the Japanese producer.
However this risk, which was by no means fully dominated out, has been dropping power in current weeks, to the purpose that VR46 and Ducati look set to reaffirm their alliance, with an extension that would even be introduced this weekend on the American MotoGP spherical in Austin.
“Yamaha is my second dwelling. However, to start with, what it ought to supply us is a extra aggressive bike. The Ducati is a good bike and its efficiency could be very excessive. We owe it to our companions. Change isn’t straightforward,” Salucci stated, talking to Motorsport.com.
Uccio Salucci, VR46 Racing Staff
Picture by: Media VR46
If VR46 sticks with Ducati, the stress would shift to Yamaha, because it has been making an attempt to ascertain a satellite tv for pc group ever since its partnership ended with the RNF squad on the finish of 2022.
However with Yamaha’s top-speed weak spot nonetheless apparent, it’s believed its finest solution to safe a second squad alongside the manufacturing facility group was to supply a monetary package deal to help a satellite tv for pc squad.
Nonetheless, to date this hasn’t been sufficiently enticing to a group like VR46 which picked up three MotoGP wins in 2023, all with Bezzecchi in Argentina, France and India, plus a number of podiums throughout each its riders.
VR46 has additionally been capable of safe better sponsorship backing, having taken on Indonesian state-owned power firm Pertamina as title sponsor from this season.
Rossi’s squad has a great state of affairs in thoughts: stick to Ducati however regain a factory-spec bike for 2025. However the present hurdle to that’s Ducati’s plan to supply solely 4 of these bikes (two to the manufacturing facility group and two to the Pramac squad), and that set-up would require Pramac boss Paolo Campinoti to voluntarily hand over certainly one of its manufacturing facility bikes for 2025.
Whereas this state of affairs appears unlikely, Salucci isn’t giving up: “Pramac is Ducati’s reference satellite tv for pc group. VR46 doesn’t search that standing. What we would like is to develop and have an official bike subsequent yr.”
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