Marco Bezzecchi
Marco Bezzecchi has opened up about his exit from the VR46 Racing outfit at the end of the 2024, revealing the real reason why he chose to leave the Valentino Rossi-owned team.
Before Marco Bezzecchi cemented himself as a factory leader at Aprilia last year, he honed his craft in the premier class at VR46. The Italian was rewarded with a seat in 2022, following an impressive Moto2 campaign that saw him finish third in the championship standings.
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Despite earning a maiden Grand Prix victory during his sophomore season in MotoGP with VR46, the Italian looked elsewhere for a ride ahead of the 2025 season, eventually signing for Aprilia as they looked toward a new era with a brand new rider line-up.
It came after a tricky campaign with one-year-old Ducati machinery. As Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin duked it out on factory machinery, Bezzecchi languished after failing to gel with the prototype in pre-season.
Rossi completely supported Bezzecchi’s move away from his MotoGP outfit. Naturally, an offer from a factory team can be difficult to compete with, and the Italian hasn’t looked back since.
Marco Bezzecchi sought a different kind of ‘responsibility’ after beginning his MotoGP career at VR46
During an appearance on The Talking Helmet, the current championship leader opened up on his move away from VR46 at the end of 2024, which led him to become a factory rider for the Aprilia outfit in the following term.
He said, “Let’s say that perhaps the difference lay a bit more within me. In the sense that, in any case, I never really got fed up of being with Vale’s team. Never, because I was having a brilliant time.
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“I had some fantastic people around me, and obviously, working with Vale is wonderful too. I was always happy with the bike, sometimes more, sometimes less, but it was always brilliant in the pits. And I always had fun on the track, which was what really mattered.
“But the different responsibility I have isn’t an extra responsibility, it’s a different kind of responsibility that I found at Aprilia. I don’t know, it made me believe in myself a bit more.
“Like, ‘See, in the end I am capable, so screw you’. It seemed like I was a bit of an idiot to a lot of people, but look, I’m actually capable, aren’t I? That gave me a real boost.”
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Marco Bezzecchi is hoping to become the second rider from the VR46 Academy to win a world title
Despite leaving the official MotoGP team of Rossi’s, Bezzecchi is still an active member of the premier class legend’s VR46 Riders’ Academy.
Currently, Bagnaia stands as the only rider under Rossi’s wing to have claimed a world title in the premier class, but with the performances that #72 has been clocking in recently, he could have a roommate in there.
With the Spanish Grand Prix now on the horizon, Bezzecchi will be looking to further bolster his advantage at the top of the MotoGP standings, while also keeping his perfect Grand Prix record in 2026 completely intact.
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