During the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Misano a press conference was held with representatives of the independent teams. They included Paolo Campinoti, Team Principal of Pramac Racing, Lucio Cecchinello, Team Manager of LCR Honda, Carlo Merlini, Sales and Marketing Director of Gresini Racing, Hervé Poncharal, Team Manager of Tech3 KTM Factory Racing, Razlan Razali, Team Principal of Petronas Yamaha SRT, and Pablo Nieto, Team Manager of SKY VR46 Racing Team.
As with all official press conferences, this one was divided between questions from Dorna Sports host Steve Day and those from the journalists.
Regarding Paul Grandson, the first question from the panel of press representatives concerned theagreement announced by the media with the Saudi oil company Aramco, which, without news and because of some apparent contradictions, the paddock no longer believes manages but which was however confirmed by the naming of the 2022 VR46 teams, in Moto2 as in MotoGP.
Paul Grandson indicated that negotiations were still ongoing, which in itself is good news for the structure of Valentino Rossi.
Paul Grandson : “As you know, we have established an agreement in the past with Aramco. In Saudi Arabia, things are moving very, very slowly, but we are on the way, and that is the most important thing. We have to continue to work and, at the moment, the one thing I can tell you is that we are working on this. We are late but we are on our way and we are still working. »
The stated slowness of the Saudis therefore seems to explain the non-officialization of this agreement, and could also elucidate another non-officialization, that of the MotoGP riders of the Tavullia team.
Everyone knows that the team intends to field Luca marini et Marco Bezzecchi on Ducatis, et Valentino Rossi he himself did not hide it during his debriefings. However, Paul Grandson deliberately continues to use generic terms so as not to mention names…
“We are excited because we are coming with our own team, completely from scratch, and we are starting a very nice project. As everyone knows, we already know the drivers, but as this weekend is important for us, for the family because of the Vale weekend, I don't want to say anything about it but everyone knows the drivers who will be in MotoGP and Moto2. »
The most logical explanation would be that, indeed, the negotiations are still in progress and, called to order or not after the unofficial challenge from Aramco, the VR46 intends to leave to the future title sponsor the honor of formalize the 2022 structure, including drivers.
We don't dare imagine another hypothesis...
