{"id":410413,"date":"2026-01-13T17:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410413\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:05:09","slug":"vr46-motogp-2027-we-have-to-be-ready-for-everything-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410413\/","title":{"rendered":"VR46: MotoGP 2027? \u201cWe have to be ready for everything\u201d &#8211; Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s all-change in MotoGP for 2027, with 850cc engines, a ban on ride-height devices and Pirelli taking over from Michelin as exclusive tyre supplier.<\/p>\n<p>But the rider market could also face a major shake-up, with only three riders so far announced as having contracts beyond the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VR46<\/a> is among the teams with both its riders &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995149\/fabio-di-giannantonio\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fabio di Giannantonio<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889477\/franco-morbidelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Franco Morbidelli <\/a>&#8211; out of contract after this season.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if VR46 could have some big decisions to make, team principal Pablo Nieto told Crash.net:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah. Already started talking, always coming earlier and earlier. But I can understand because in \u201827, 90% of the riders are going to be free.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom \u201825 to \u201826 is, let&#8217;s say, a little bit more boring! Nothing happens. But \u201826 to \u201827 is going to be a big change in MotoGP. So we have to be ready for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3000_gng_1255578_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Franco Morbidelli, Fabio di Giannantonio, 2025 Hungarian MotoGP\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.38\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Franco Morbidelli, Fabio di Giannantonio, 2025 Hungarian MotoGP<\/p>\n<p>VR46 held exploratory talks with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1040772\/pedro-acosta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Pedro Acosta<\/a> early last season, before the Spanish star committed to another year at KTM.<\/p>\n<p>Nieto confirmed the door remains open for Acosta &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1088298\/1\/vr46-admit-pedro-acosta-motogp-move-would-be-dream-exclusive\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> describing it as \u201ca dream\u201d to have him in the team<\/a> &#8211; but stressed that VR46\u2019s priority is giving its current riders the chance to secure their futures on track.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to try to keep the same riders, because in the end we want to give the opportunity [to get good results] to our riders,\u201d Nieto said.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you never know what happens. So we have to try to make our best, try to have the best riders. And we are focused on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>di Giannantonio, who races with factory-spec machinery, is contracted directly to Ducati, while Academy rider Morbidelli is signed directly to VR46.<\/p>\n<p>The pair finished sixth (di Giannantonio) and seventh (Morbidelli) in the 2025 MotoGP standings, with a combined total of 13 top-three finishes.<\/p>\n<p>Ducati\u2019s factory-supported satellite team will unveil its new 2026 race livery in Rome on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s all-change in MotoGP for 2027, with 850cc engines, a ban on ride-height devices and Pirelli taking over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,15118,23688,806,805,803,804,10734,15119,85,20420],"class_list":{"0":"post-410413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fabio-di-giannantonio","11":"tag-franco-morbidelli","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-pedro-acosta","17":"tag-pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-valentino-rossi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}