Pablo Nieto reveals what Valentino Rossi has asked VR46 team to do ahead of 2025 MotoGP season

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The VR46 MotoGP team know that a big year awaits. With the departure of Pramac, they have become the second-in-command team at Ducati.

Heading into the year, the plan was for their lead rider, Fabio di Giannantonio, to ride a current-spec bike. With Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia sticking with last year’s engine, it will now be more of a ‘GP24.9’.

Teammate Franco Morbidelli will be at a disadvantage over the year as a whole. But Morbidelli should reap the benefits of continuity, having ridden the GP24 at Pramac last term alongside world champion Jorge Martin.

Fully recovered, it would seem, from the serious injury he suffered last winter, Morbidelli could score some big results this season. The GP24 was such a dominant motorcycle that it may still be faster than rival offerings.

VR46 finished third in the championship in 2023, with Marco Bezzecchi scoring their only victories (three of them to be precise) in the premier class to date. The Italian was responsible for the solitary podium they managed last year too, but he’s now left for Aprilia.

This season, the squad owned by Valentino Rossi should set a new benchmark. Second place in the championship is a realistic goal, repeating what Pramac managed last season.

Valentino Rossi tells his VR46 colleagues to ‘have fun’ in 2025

Speaking to GPOne, VR46 team manager Pablo Nieto said his team have the ‘package’ they need to be successful in 2025. That includes the riders, the commercial backing and ‘the support of Ducati’.

Di Giannantonio missed all but one day of testing after he injured himself performing a wheelie in Sepang. He’s hoping to return for the season-opening Thailand Grand Prix, but it’s unclear how long it will take him to feel comfortable on the bike.

According to Nieto, Rossi has urged his team to ‘have fun’ this season. That in itself will be a sign that they are delivering on track.

“He asks what we all ask,” Nieto said of Rossi. “We have to have fun. If we are having fun, it means we are doing well. In the end, we have the whole package to be able to do well.

“We have a very competitive bike. We have all the support, all the sponsors, partners, the support of Ducati, we have the support of Vale.

“The riders are demonstrating that they are strong. If we make that one big package, then we can achieve something important.”

Has Valentino Rossi turned Franco Morbidelli into the ‘Lance Stroll’ of MotoGP?

One journalist believes that Rossi feels disengaged from his MotoGP team. He apparently views them as a business, which means the profit margin is his overriding concern.

It does give him a chance to promote the talent from his academy, however. Morbidelli, a three-time race-winner at the highest level, has followed his path.

Morbidelli has been called the Lance Stroll of MotoGP because there’s no prospect of him losing his seat. F1 driver Stroll is effectively employed by his father at Aston Martin.

The suggestion is that Rossi’s backing protects Morbidelli from scrutiny. But the 29-year-old will look to prove this year that he’s earned a front-running bike on merit.