The 2026 MotoGP season will be one of continuity for VR46 Ducati and for Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is hoping to take advantage of that.
The VR46 team unveiled an updated livery in Rome on 14 January, but that is about all that will change in the garage this year.
Di Giannantonio remains alongside Franco Morbidelli on the rider front, and both riders keep the same crew as before, something of particular importance for Di Giannantonio who changed crew two seasons in a row in 2024 and 2025, and suffered with inconsistency last season, occasionally able to challenge for the podium but occasionally struggling to break far into the top-10.
“For sure it will be a different season,” Di Giannantonio told MotoGP.com at the VR46 launch in Rome.
“My second season as a factory rider.
“Also for the team it will be a different season, the second year together with the same crew, and also it will be again my first season that I can do my winter properly with the proper preparation.
“So, I will arrive to the tests ready, in a great form, so I think we will approach the races and tests in a different way, in a better way.”
Morbidelli: 2025 showed “great potential”
Franco Morbidelli was the first of the VR46 riders to finish on the MotoGP podium in 2025, but his inconsistency was similar to Di Giannantonio’s and he never climbed the rostrum after the Hungary Sprint.
It will be his second season with the VR46 team and one he hopes will see him unlock what he sees as “great potential” more frequently.
“I’m very much looking forward for my second season with the team,” said Morbidelli, speaking to MotoGP.com.
“For sure, we’ve seen last year that there is a great potential, that on some areas we need to unlock and hopefully together we can make it this year.
“If we do that, we can enjoy very much on Saturdays and Sundays.”
On the 2026 season in general, he added: “It’s going to be, again, very exciting; there’s going to be, for sure, a lot of action on-track.
“Everybody is going to be on their top game, for sure, so we are going to face and witness another great season of MotoGP.”
