VR46 MotoGP Team Director Alessio Salucci has firmly denied FIM President Jorge Viegas’ claims that the squad will switch from running Ducati machinery to Yamaha in 2024.
Viegas stated at the FIM awards last weekend that the Valentino Rossi-owned operation would end its co-operation with Ducati after two years and become Yamaha’s official satellite squad for the 2024 term, with the Japanese manufacturer forced to run only two M1’s in 2023 following RNF Racing’s defection to Aprilia after a tough campaign this year.
Salucci – a close friend of Rossi as well as team boss of VR46 – though strongly denies the claims by Viegas that the team is set to switch allegiance, the Italian insisting that the organisation will honour the three-year deal it has with Ducati that concludes at the end of ’24 before it will even think about switching brands.
Talking to Italian publication GPOne, he also questioned why the team would want to make the move in the first place given that Ducati’s Desmosedici is currently “the reference” in terms of pace while the Yamaha is “clearly not at the moment.”
“I don’t know why (Jorge) Viegas is spreading such a bombshell, but we don’t know anything about it,” said Salucci.
“I can only say once again that we have a three-year contract with Ducati that expires at the end of 2024, with an option to extend it for another two years, and we will certainly fulfill the existing contract – for 2025 we will then see whether we continue with Ducati or not.
“As I’ve always said, it’s important for us that we have competitive bikes.
“The reference in the premier class in this respect is clearly the Desmosedici and not the M1 at the moment, even if the VR46 team will only use GP22 bikes in 2023.”
Salucci added that that he “hopes the Yamaha will be competitive” going forward from a personal perspective, mainly because of Rossi’s storied history with the marque as well as its current relationship with Yamaha in the Moto2 world championship through the VR46 Mastercamp outfit – with VR46 academy member Franco Morbidelli also competing for Yamaha’s premier class team.
“From a personal point of view, I hope that the Yamaha will be competitive,” continued Salucci.
“I don’t deny that there is a certain bond and of course I hope so for (Franco) Morbidelli, a rider from our Academy who rides for Yamaha. But this wish has nothing to do with the VR46 team.
“I don’t know why this rumour started and if there’s any truth to it, it would be good if they shared it with us too.
“Joking aside, we feel comfortable with Ducati as the bikes are strong and (Luca) Marini and (Marco) Bezzecchi are very happy with them, so our path is to continue with Ducati.”
