{"id":636314,"date":"2026-04-28T13:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/636314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:40:10","slug":"vr46-is-the-top-ducati-team-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/636314\/","title":{"rendered":"‘VR46 is the top Ducati team right now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

VR46 team director Alessio ‘Uccio’ Salucci reckons his independent squad is the top\u00a0Ducati team<\/a> in MotoGP right now, amid the factory outfit’s current struggles.<\/p>\n

While fellow satellite Gresini may dispute that claim after Alex Marquez<\/a> won the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, VR46 is the highest Ducati crew in the teams’ championship, in third place. Its lead rider Fabio di Giannantonio<\/a> is also the top Ducati in the riders’ standings following his third-place finish at Jerez.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the factory team itself had an unhappy race at Jerez. It has now gone nine straight grands prix without a rider on the podium, a run stretching back to the day its man Francesco Bagnaia<\/a> won the Japanese Grand Prix last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com Italy on Friday at the Spanish GP, when VR46 still lay behind the factory squad on the teams’ points table, Salucci was asked how satisfying it was for his crew to have started the season so strongly.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a great satisfaction,” said team owner Valentino Rossi’s right-hand man. “We really got off on the right foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Last season was a bit too inconsistent, but in the final five or six races I felt we were heading in the right direction, especially with Diggia. I always say that to have a strong season, you need to finish the previous one well. It\u2019s very hard to end a season badly and then perform well the next.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m happy because we\u2019re the top Ducati team right now – that\u2019s something I like. I\u2019m also glad we can provide solid support to the factory Ducati team, because they\u2019re watching us closely; they see how fast we are. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re here.”<\/p>\n

\"Fabio <\/p>\n

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Salucci again underlined the role Di Giannantonio’s riding has played in the good times VR46 is enjoying in the early part of 2026. Moving into a second year working with engineer Massimo Branchini has also been key.<\/p>\n

“A lot of credit also goes to Diggia \u2013 he\u2019s riding incredibly well. He\u2019s understood how to ride this bike, and it\u2019s his second year with the team. Last year we changed crew chief, with\u00a0Branchini coming in, and now they\u2019re in their second year together. They\u2019re working better and better, and that really pleases me.”<\/p>\n

While Di Giannantonio has delivered strong results for VR46 this year, his team-mate Franco Morbidelli’s 2025 struggles have carried over into this season. Morbidelli lies 13th in the championship, 10 spots and 46 points behind his in-form colleague.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Matteo Nugnes<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VR46 team director Alessio ‘Uccio’ Salucci reckons his independent squad is the top\u00a0Ducati team in MotoGP right now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,224629,8542,5745,806,805,803,804,254732,85,80788,308062],"class_list":["post-636314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-circuito-de-jerez","tag-ducati-team","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-spanish-gp","tag-sports","tag-team-vr46","tag-uccio-salucci-vr46-is-the-top-ducati-team-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636314","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=636314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}