2022 will be a special year for Alessio Salucci, known to all as “Uccio”. After more than two decades spent alongside his friend Valentino Rossi, he will still be in MotoGP, but with a completely different role. It is true that he has already been Team Director of the VR46 Racing Team since the very beginning, in 2014, when the project linked to Sky got underway from Moto3.
This year, however, there will be the debut in the premier class, with the Ducatis entrusted to Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi. It is therefore normal that everything is a bit more frenetic, as Uccio himself confirmed immediately after the presentation of the team today branded Mooney in Pesaro: “I’m a bit tired, because we are really working at a furious pace, but I really care a lot. to this project and we want to do a good job, “he said.
How did the partnership between Mooney and VR46 come about?
“We met during the winter thanks to a mutual friend. We immediately liked each other and had the same ideas, seeing the possibility of many synergies. The CEO Emilio Petrone is also a great motorcycle enthusiast and this has certainly helped: it is came to visit us at the Ranch and we signed the agreement, which is not only a sponsorship, but a partnership. We want to grow with them and also do extra activities, to make sure that this collaboration can last in the long term. we have only recently known, at most two or three months, but it seems that we have been together for a long time. We hope to do well the things we will do together, because we can have fun “.
Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, Celestino Vietti, Niccolo Antonelli, VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
Have the two riders contracted with you or with Ducati?
“They both signed with us, including Marini”.
Marini has the factory bike and has been very strong in the tests. Last year he had to learn, now what are your expectations of him?
“I think last year helped him a lot. When he had to decide whether to go to MotoGP in 2021 or stay another year in Moto2 with our team, I pushed hard to make him make the leap, even though I knew it was a situation. difficult like that of Team Avintia. He had a bike that was a bit ‘tired’, but I think that in the tests he did with us, in November at Jerez and then in Asia at the beginning of this year, the work he did there ‘last year it came in handy. Now he rides a better performing bike, in a team that we have a bit sewn on him, with all the men he wanted, and he went really fast. Now I don’t want to exaggerate or put unnecessary pressure on him. , but we have to say things as they are: we went strong on both the soft and the race tires. It is true that we are a new team and that he is only in his second year, but I would like us to be in the top often 10 “.
With a factory bike maybe you can’t ask for something more? Last year, for example Bastianini made the podium with an old bike …
“The podium is a real goal. I was talking more about consistency, in the sense of always staying from the tenth position upwards, because I think that if you are regularly in those areas, the podium will arrive. Last year I think it was Enea to have a great season and not Luca to go slow. He impressed me, hats off, but this year we will try to go as fast as him, if not more “.
VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
Unlike the other Ducati teams, your technical garments do not come from Borgo Panigale. Why did you make this choice?
“It is true that it is a slightly different situation, because the other Ducati teams work with the technicians given to them by the brand. But we wanted to make a team marked VR46, with our people. I talked a lot about this with From the Igna last year. Maybe it will take a little longer to break in the guys, but Ducati has given us great support from this point of view, letting our guys go to the company, letting our electronic engineers study. with theirs. At the first test we found ourselves chasing a little longer, because the others were a bit more ready. But we preferred to do this, also to reward the project a little and have our people. Maybe we will suffer at the beginning, but we are convinced that it will pay off in the long run. “
At the end of this year the contracts of almost all the drivers on the grid will expire. If a call comes in from an official team for yours how would you take it?
“We hope that they will go strong and that sooner or later they can go to a factory team. At the end of this year the drivers’ contracts in many top teams expire, so it could also be the right time for them. Theoretically, there could be a place free also in Ducati, even if there are many contending for him. Surely we think about these things and try to foresee what the scenarios could be. But if Luca or Marco will have a call from some official team, it means that we have our job done well, that we went strong, and that we were at their disposal both as an Academy and as a team “.
Looking to the future, do you always imagine a team with the Academy drivers inside it or could there also be an opening to others?
“This doesn’t have to be a limit, although of course the priority is the Academy riders. This team was created precisely to follow their growth, but it doesn’t have to be a limit. I’m sure there will come a day when we won’t have drivers. ready to do the MotoGP and at that point we will not close the team, we will look around and we will also evaluate some riders who are not part of the Academy.
Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
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