Ducati expresses ‘importance’ of Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP team

Ducati MotoGP team boss Davide Tardozzi says Valentino Rossi’s VR46 squad is “important to us” despite an underwhelming 2025 campaign for its riders.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi brought his team to MotoGP in 2022 following his retirement from racing, with the outfit signing up with Ducati.

In its second year, VR46 was winning races with Marco Bezzecchi, though it hasn’t topped a podium since the 2023 Indian Grand Prix.

VR46 earned factory backing from Ducati for 2025, with Fabio Di Giannantonio receiving a GP25.

However, he was unable to score a race win on it and achieved just four podiums in 2025, while Franco Morbidelli had a brace of third-place finishes on the GP24.

VR46 was the only Ducati team not to win a race in 2025, with Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia scoring 13 between them on the GP25, and Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer taking four on the GP24.

In a recent interview with Sky Italy, team boss Pablo Nieto admitted “we have to improve” as VR46 needs to “fight for something that matters”.

Despite its underwhelming results in 2025, Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi has thrown his support behind the VR46 outfit.

“We are happy with the team’s work,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“They are important to us and have shown us how professional they are.

“For some reason, Franky and DiGia didn’t perform well during the season.

“They had ups and downs, and that doesn’t give the team what it deserves, because the team was working very well.”

Alex Marquez’s breakout 2025 with Gresini, in which he finished runner-up to Marc Marquez in the championship and consistently battled for the podium, has earned him a GP26 for next year.

However, Alex Marquez remains on a Gresini contract, while Di Giannantonio at VR46 is directly contracted to Ducati.

Di Giannantonio was sixth in the standings at the end of 2025, 262 points behind Marc Marquez, while Morbidelli was 31 adrift of his team-mate in seventh.