MotoGP: Valentino Rossi's VR46 academy is looking for its students

The years go by and are not the same for a VR46 academy dear to Valentino Rossi. Last year, the structure, which aims to be efficient in the discovery and breeding of talents, celebrated its second World Champion with Bagnaia who joined his previous Morbidelli in MotoGP. The two Italians could hope to continue this good momentum, one with a Ducati contract with Pramac and the other climbing onto a Yamaha more promising than his previous Honda. Meanwhile, brother Marini opened his victory counter. But 2019 was a different story…

The label VR46 does a lot for the next generation of Italian motorcycle speed riders, but this season, it has also been shown that he is not essential. Bulega, Foggia et Baldassarri have thus decided to stand on their own two feet by leaving this academy which until then had only deplored the dismissal of fenati. Furthermore, the sporting results were not those expected. Certainly, Marini woke up during the overseas campaign, but bagnaia suffered too much on the Ducati GP18 while Morbidely was overshadowed by the newbie Quarterly already leader of the next generation.

Furthermore, vacant places must be filled. And apparently it's not that simple. The Valentino Rossi Academy is therefore looking for young talents. For the 2020 season, the Sky VR46 team will be made up of Luca marini et Marco Bezzecchi, the latter taking the place of the outgoing Nicholas Bulega. The promising Celestine Vietti remains in the Moto3 category. He will join Andrea Migno instead of Dennis Foggia.

The VR46 team has been around for five years and has already won a world title in 2018 with Pecco Bagnaia in the Moto2 World Championship. Franco Morbidelli won a world title but with a different team. For the future, the Academy is looking for new talents. “ At the moment we do not have a team for the Junior World Championship. We have two talented riders in the Junior Team in the Italian Moto3 championship, but they are still too inexperienced for the Grands Prix. Lorenzo Bartalesi, born in 2002 and Elia Bartolini, born in 2003 " Explain Pablo Nieto at Speedweek.com.

A generational change may be necessary in the coming years, as the Sky VR46 team drivers must come from the VR46 Academy and be Italian. “ It's not easy to find fast Italian drivers. But you never know what will happen in the future. At the moment we only support Italians in the Academy project ", has followed Paul Grandson. In the future, the only certainty is called Celestine Vietti : " Vietti is a promise for the future. In 2018, in his second Grand Prix, he took third place on the podium. Yes, I really like Celestino. I love his character, he does a great job. He has a great feeling with the team. He listens attentively. This is very important. We are going to work with him a lot. »