VR46 negotiating a contract extension with Ducati – But Gigi Dall’Igna and Mauro Grassilli hint that they could lose a satellite team
With eight motorcycles, Ducati will once again have the largest contingent of all five brands in the field for the 2024 MotoGP season. Pramac will remain the number one satellite team in the long term and will effectively be a second factory team. Gresini has extended the contract until the end of 2025
The only question mark concerns the future of VR46. The Ducati contract of Valentino Rossi’s satellite team expires at the end of the 2024 season. “We are talking a lot with Ducati, with Dall’Igna,” confirmed Team Director Alessio “Uccio” Salucci to MotoGP.com.
There were also talks in the paddock during the Qatar race weekend. “Maybe we will find the right way so that we can sign soon. I have asked Ducati for something. We are quite close,” says Salucci.
However, there are also signs that the collaboration might not be extended. “It will be difficult,” says Ducati’s General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna on Italian Sky, “for us to keep all the teams next year.”
“Other manufacturers are putting pressure on us to have satellite teams. They also have the possibility to offer big discounts because they get bonuses from the organizer [Dorna] if they run a satellite team.”
“It will be complicated for us to continue with four teams, but we will try.” This is because Gresini and VR46 are pure customer teams that have to pay for the bikes. Ducati has also made it clear that, for organizational reasons, only last year’s models are available.
It is therefore not possible for either private team to get the same bike as the factory team. “Pramac has the exclusive rights to be the factory-supported satellite team,” Mauro Grassilli emphasized to the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com.
Grassilli has been Sports Director of the MotoGP project since this year and has taken over from Paolo Ciabatti, who is in charge of the new Ducati project in the Motocross World Championship.
Grassilli is now responsible for the detailed commercial negotiations with the satellite teams. “We are talking to VR46 to extend our cooperation. But it’s not easy,” the Italian also admits that an extension is not set in stone.
“Because, as I said, this agreement must also fit into the new economic framework. We meet with them every week, but we haven’t found a solution yet. We know that they have an offer on the table from Yamaha.”
Grassilli adds: “We are not the ones in a hurry.” The fact that Yamaha has set itself the clear goal of running a satellite team again from 2025 was recently emphasized again by Lin Jarvis at the team presentation.
And what does Salucci say about the hints that things could become concrete between VR46 and Yamaha? “I don’t know,” was his answer with a laugh in Qatar. VR46 wants to have the motorcycle issue resolved as soon as possible so that it can then turn its attention to the rider issue for next year.