IT’S OFFICIAL! Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team is heading to MotoGP

With the backing of the Saudi Royal Family, Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team will be going MotoGP racing next year. But they’ve still not settled on a bike.

Tanal Entertainment (the holding company of the Saudi royal family) has partnered up with Team VR46 for the next five years – and together they’ll be getting stuck into some MotoGP (and Moto2) action. And we won’t have to wait long to see the results, the new ARAMCO Racing Team VR46 will be getting involved as of next year.

A press release about the news said: “Tanal Entertainment Sport & Media, the holding company of HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Saud, is pleased to announce an important strategic agreement with VR46 Team, Valentino Rossi’s company, for the near future of Moto GP. In 2022 the VR46 Team will debut in the MotoGP class together with Tanal Entertainment Sport & Media with Saudi Aramco, as the new Main Sponsor for the period 2022-2026: the new ARAMCO Racing Team VR46 on the track with the support of other important sponsors from the world scene. Saudi Aramco, a company already heavily involved in Motorsport and F1, will therefore enter the 2022 MotoGP World Championship with VR46 Team. A wide-ranging partnership between Tanal Entertainment Sport & Media and VR46 Team which aim to communicate important projects, developed following the previous sponsorship agreement for the 2021 sports season, with their partners.”

The press release continues: “The joint-venture with VR46 Team confirms the intentions to bring the sporting project to the MotoGP class from 2022, while maintaining its presence in the Moto2 class. VR46 Team once again demonstrates its commitment and its ability to promote new talents across its ambitious horizon. The Aramco brand, as main sponsor of the team, will accompany us in the new scenarios of the sporting future with “our” shared ambitions and projects for the years to come ”.

It’s not necessarily a big surprise – we’ve been speculating that Rossi’s team would be making it to top flight racing very soon. However, there’s still no news on what bikes they’re going to be racing. Rumours suggest that Aprilia and Ducati are leading the charge, but there’s also been whispers that Suzuki and Yamaha are in the running too. Either way, it’s unlikely we’ll have to wait too much longer to find out – as the team will want to get out testing as soon as possible.