Why internal struggle is inevitable for Rossi’s MotoGP clan

Valentino Rossi and confidant Uccio Salucci have pulled off something special. Going into MotoGP’s 2023 season, Rossi will have been retired for over a year, but 18% of the grid will carry his torch. Among them will be the series’ reigning champion.

If Franco Morbidelli’s run to runner-up in the 2020 MotoGP season hadn’t formally cemented the VR46 Academy as an obvious success story – and, let’s be honest here, it absolutely did – then Pecco Bagnaia becoming champion in 2022 certainly has. There’s still some way to go until this crop matches Rossi’s seven MotoGP crowns, but, assuming the Academy keeps ticking along, it is distinctly not an impossible scenario.

Yet sustained success creates a particular pressure point. Some other motorsport talent development structures are famously ruthless, to the point where that ruthlessness appears a desired feature for zeroing in on the absolute best of the best. The VR46 programme, meanwhile, wants to be a family every bit as much as a talent scouting scheme – and, to hear its participants, it has succeeded in that. But most families don’t routinely compete against one another.

VR46’s class of 2023

Franco Morbidelli, 27 (will be 28 on December 4)
Andrea Migno, 26
Pecco Bagnaia, 25
Luca Marini, 25
Marco Bezzecchi, 24
Celestino Vietti, 21

“We spend a lot of time together,” Valentino Rossi’s brother Luca Marini said of the dynamic among the VR46 Academy riders. “It’s not just training together.

“We are a group of friends, and we talk about everything – TV shows, Netflix, other sports, watching F1 together, playing video games together. We are first of all a group of friends. And then a training group. And then competitors on track.

“I think that we’re managing this situation really well in these years, because it’s not easy, especially when you arrive in MotoGP, because everything is different in MotoGP. But we are doing great and I hope we can keep going like this.

“But also I hope it will be a little bit worse! Because when the relationship is more difficult, it’s a sign you are fighting for victory. It’s good also to have this.”

VR46’s current MotoGP contingent are four very capable riders. But, though Rossi and Salucci no doubt want their proteges to succeed consistently, they can perhaps count themselves lucky that some underperformed in 2022 relative to others.

Bagnaia’s fellow VR46 riders weren’t a major factor during his title chase. Rookie Marco Bezzecchi took it easy on him on a couple of occasions, while Bagnaia’s improvement curve virtually coincided with Marini’s, the pair moving up the order in tandem as the Desmosedici GP22 was refined, and therefore not in battle too often.

The big one is Morbidelli, who Yamaha would have wanted to play a much bigger role in helping Fabio Quartararo defend his title against Bagnaia – but who by and large was just not quick enough to impact Bagnaia’s races. He did at one point…