VR46 makes Fabio Di Giannantonio changes: “Sometimes you must change something”

A “different kind of work” has been adopted by Fabio Di Giannantonio’s side of the VR46 Ducati box in the final part of the MotoGP season, team boss Pablo Nieto says.

Di Giannantonio has suffered with inconsistency all season, most obviously in the German and Czech rounds when he went from battling for second in the former to not having the pace for the points in the latter, in races separated by one week.

That inconsistency has been explained by Di Giannantonio often by the narrow working window he finds with the setup of the 2025 Desmosedici GP.

In an effort to try to improve, a new working method has been implemented on his side of the VR46 Racing Team garage, as confirmed in Portugal by Team Manager Pablo Nieto.

“In the end, I think in the last races we are making a very good job,” Nieto told the MotoGP world feed broadcast during FP2 at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

“It’s very important to try something different because [...] we know that in some races we made some mistakes and we have to change something. 

“So, it’s important to try to make something different – in the last races we are making, with the crew chief, with the data guy, also with Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio], so that’s very important for us. 

“It’s not a new system, it’s just a different kind of work, and it looks like it’s a little bit better.

“But, in the end, it’s just a system to work, it’s nothing changed with the bike or anything.”

Nieto emphasised that the changes have come as a result of time, Di Giannantonio having spent 2025 building his relationship with a new crew chief and data engineer, and that the team has had to work with Di Giannantonio on himself as well as his technical package.

“Sometimes it’s very difficult to find the way between the rider and the crew chief and the data guy,” Nieto explained.

“To try to find a good balance takes some time and sometimes it happens also that you must change something. 

“Also, sometimes, we as a team have to say to the rider ‘Wait, one second, it’s also very important that we are working on you, not only on the bike’. 

“It’s from time-to-time that we have to make meetings with the rider, with the crew chief.”

Di Giannantonio went on, after FP2, to qualify ninth in Q2 at Portimao, a session that was ultimately dominated by Marco Bezzecchi while pre-session favourite Alex Marquez crashed at turn three and qualified fifth.