MotoGP: Ducati finalizes its agreements with VR46 and Gresini for 2022

Motorsport.com understands that the parties involved are finalizing the final details which, once resolved, should allow announcements to take place in the coming days.

Once the alliances are made official, Ducati will once again be the manufacturer with the most presence in the heavy motorcycle category, a position it has held in the past. Between 2016 and 2018 there were three satellite structures that competed with the prototypes of the Bolognese company ( Pramac , Avintia and Aspar ), apart from the official one.

This past weekend, in the run-up to the Italian Grand Prix, Pramac made official the extension of its relationship with Ducati for another three years, until 2024, with Johann Zarco and Jorge Martín as a pair of drivers. It will be necessary to see, in any case, which Desmosedici specification corresponds to each one, something that depends on the investment and other parameters to be negotiated.

Several consequences will follow from these new links. The configuration of the 24 bikes that will make up the 2022 grid should be drawn with eight Ducati (the official ones, plus those from Pramac, VR46 and Gresini), four Honda (Repsol and LCR), Yamaha (Monster and SRT) and KTM (Red Bull and Tech3), while both Suzuki and Aprilia would contribute only two units each.

In the case of the manufacturer from Noale , in 2022 he will break his seven-year relationship with Gresini, a coexistence that has not been easy, due to the different points of view in the management of the team. One of the last sources of conflict was the attempt by Aprilia to acquire the services of Fabio Di Giannantonio when the Italian had already signed with the team of the recently deceased Fausto.

Another conclusion that can be drawn is that SRT will finally keep the two Yamahas with which it has raced since its entry into MotoGP, in 2019, despite VR46’s interest in taking over those two M1s.

“At Ducati we are in a position to supply eight motorcycles because we have already done it before,” confirmed Davide Tardozzi , Ducati team manager, from Mugello.

Although, logically, the ideal approach of the promoter of the championship is that each constructor has at least one satellite formation, there is no obligation that this must be the case. “The rules that prevail here are those of the free market, so you cannot force yourself in any way to sign a specific agreement with a brand if there is another that offers better conditions,” says Paolo Ciabatti , Ducati sports director, to whom he writes These lines.

Valentino Rossi Petronas Yamaha SRT Luca Marini Esponsorama Racing