Ducati renews VR46 and Gresini partnerships to run six bikes on 2027 MotoGP grid

Gresini Racing became the first Ducati satellite squad to announce a new deal for 2027 with the Italian brand on Thursday, before Valentino Rossi’s Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team confirmed its own contract extension on Friday.

The new three-year deal will keep VR46 tied to Ducati through the end of the 2029 season as the manufacturer’s ‘Factory Supported Team’, extending a partnership that began in 2022.

In addition to its two official factory bikes, piloted by Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta, Ducati will add four more prototypes of the new 850cc DesmosediciGP, which will be in the hands of Joan Mir and Daniel Holgado, in the Gresini box, and Fermin Aldeguer, in the VR46 garage.

Rossi’s team is yet to confirm its second rider, but all indications are that it will be the Italian Nicolo Bulega, who this year is overwhelmingly leading the World Superbike championship with the factory Ducati team.

With the change in the technical regulations for 2027, Ducati is developing an 850cc prototype that is lighter, with less aerodynamics, without ride-height devices and with Pirelli tyres. In the first race of the season, Ducati’s six bikes will be identical.

However, the manufacturer continues to maintain a double status: full factory’ bikes and satellite bikes. While the former will receive the updates introduced during the season, the latter, on paper, will start and finish the year without major changes, so the price is also different.

In addition to Marquez and Acosta, Aldeguer also competes as a rider contracted by Ducati, and in 2027 with VR46, he will enjoy the status of an official rider with a ‘full factory’ bike. As such, Aldeguer will receive the developments introduced by the factory team at the next grand prix in which that happens.

Mir will also have an ‘official’ bike, even though the Mallorcan rider is contracted by Gresini, which will pay for the ‘full factory’ bike for the 2020 MotoGP world champion.

Like Mir, Holgado is also contracted by Gresini but will have a satellite GP27 bike. That is, in principle, one without major developments.

The second bike of the VR46 team will also be a satellite version, like Holgado’s, whether Bulega is the rider or not – even though the Italian will race under contract with the Bologna manufacturer.

Six bikes is the most by regulation

For three seasons (2022-2024), Ducati had a deployment of eight machines on the MotoGP grid, adding the Pramac team to the list. The team was considered a semi-official outfit and went on to win the world championship with Jorge Martin in 2024.

However, disagreements between the team’s owner, Paolo Campinoti, and Ducati’s management led to a split that ended with Pramac partnering with Yamaha.

The loss of those two bikes, together with the fact that Aprilia now has a feeder team, Trackhouse, has led the Noale-based manufacturer to challenge Ducati’s dominance in MotoGP. For that reason, Bologna discreetly tried to take steps to attract a new customer and return to the eight-bike formula as soon as possible.

The championship promoter’s response was to introduce a change to the regulations and prohibit more than six identical bikes on the grid, a rule that was made public on 22 June.

At the same time, the Grand Prix Commission jointly announced the elimination of ride-height devices and the increase in the distance between riders on the grid for the start.

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– The Autosport.com Team