VR46 reveal how much we’ll see Valentino Rossi at MotoGP 2025 races
“Day by day, month by month, Vale is more inside the MotoGP project”
Valentino Rossi is said to be more involved in his MotoGP team now and is aiming to come to “a minimum of six, seven” grands prix in 2025.
The MotoGP legend already announced last year he would be scaling back his car racing commitments in 2025 in order to be able to attend more grands prix with his VR46 squad.
Earlier this month, Rossi was announced as entering into the World Endurance Championship - consisting of eight rounds - and is set to take part in select major endurance events, like this weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hours.
Previously, he has been competing in a dual WEC and GT World Challenge Europe campaign, which brought his number of races close to that of the MotoGP calendar length.
Read more: Inside Valentino Rossi's chase for a tenth world title
Since retiring from MotoGP at the end of 2021, Rossi’s visits to the paddock have been scarce.
But VR46 team manager Uccio Salucci has confirmed that Rossi intends to up his MotoGP presence in 2025 to a minimum of six or seven events.
“Day by day, month by month, Vale is always more inside the MotoGP project because he likes very much his team,” Salucci said when asked by Crash.net about Rossi’s plans for 2025.
“I see his schedule, for sure it is less than last year because he’s doing WEC, less races for him, and he wants to come to a minimum of six of seven races.
“I’m very happy about that because when Vale comes to a race, he doesn’t come for a holiday but to spend a lot of time in our box, with our [VR46 Academy] riders, also with [Fabio] Di Giannantonio.
“And it’s always very important for us to [have] Vale [around] because Vale is Vale. I hope he comes in six or seven races.”
Salucci was speaking following VR46’s 2025 official launch event at the weekend, in which it unveiled a largely unchanged livery for Franco Morbidelli and Di Giannantonio.
The VR46 Academy is currently in Indonesia at the Mandalika circuit for three days of pre-season training ahead of MotoGP testing starting next week.
Rossi’s first race of 2025 will be this weekend at the Bathurst 12 Hours with WRT BMW, while the opening round of the WEC campaign takes place in Qatar on 28 February - the same weekend as the MotoGP opener in Thailand.
In total, Rossi’s WEC calendar clashes six times with MotoGP in 2025.
As well as his VR46 team, Rossi’s visits to MotoGP races will also see him work with Marco Bezzecchi at Aprilia, Francesco Bagnaia at Ducati and his brother Luca Marini at Honda.
