Sky Racing Team VR46

The SKY Racing Team VR46 is a motorcycle racing team owned by Valentino Rossi and based in Tavullia (Marche, Italy). The team enters Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the Moto2 category with Kalex chassis and previously in Moto3 category with KTM RC250GP motorcycles. The team manager is the former road racer Pablo Nieto. The team has collected 24 wins (9 in Moto3 and 15 in Moto2) and one riders' championship (with Bagnaia in 2018). The team is only interested in employing racers from Italy.
History.
Moto3.
The team was founded in 2014 by the nine time world champion Valentino Rossi and entered the Moto3 World Championship.
In the team's first year they choose Romano Fenati and Francesco Bagnaia as riders. It was an up and down season for Fenati, as he scored four podiums in the first six races and ultimately recorded four wins during the season. However, inconsistent results ultimately left him in 5th position in the championship with 176 points. Bagnaia finished top 10 five times during the first 7 races with a 4th-place finish at Le Mans as his best result, where he also set the fastest lap of the race. Bagnaia missed the races at Assen and Sachsenring due to injury. After scoring 42 points in the first 7 races of the campaign Bagnaia slumped badly during the second part of the season, only finishing in the points twice of the last 9 races, clearly affected by his injury. He finished the season in 16th position with 50 points.
In 2015 the team confirmed Fenati and choose Andrea Migno instead of Bagnaia. The 2015 season was also an under-performance for Fenati. Though he maintained some consistency finishing in the top five in eight races – including a victory at Le Mans. Poor qualifying positions for Fenati resulted in the loss of vital points, and he finished the season with 176 points – as he did in 2014 – but placed one position higher in the standings. Migno finished the season in 19th with 35 points.
In 2016 both Fenati and Migno were confirmed and a third bike was given to Nicolò Bulega, but Fenati was fired after ten races and replaced by Lorenzo Dalla Porta. Fenati started the 2016 season with a pole position at Qatar, however he only managed 4th in the race. He finished in 20th in Argentina, before his first win of the season in the United States. He was seventh at Jerez, before a second-place finish at Le Mans, losing out to Brad Binder by 0.099 seconds. Fenati qualified on pole at Mugello, but failed to finish the race. He was fourth in both Catalunya and Netherlands, before a pointless 18 position in Germany. Fenati was dropped by Sky Racing VR46 in Austria as a disciplinary action for disagreeing with Uccio Salucci. On 16 August the VR46 team terminated their contract with Romano for the 2016 and 2017 seasons stating behavioural issues in conflict with team policy as the reason behind the split. Bulega started the season with sixth place at Qatar. At his fifth race in Moto3, Bulega achieved his first Grand Prix podium at Jerez with 2nd-place finish having started from pole position, which was his first pole position in Grand Prix. Bulega's first fastest lap came at the British Grand Prix in the last lap. Followed by a crash in Aragon, On his birthday Bulega finished the Japanese grand Prix at fourth place and set the fastest lap. But after the third place holder Hiroki Ono was disqualified Bulega was awarded third place. Both in Australia and Malaysia Bulega crashed in the opening lap. His last three crashes in Aragon,Australia and Malaysia was because of the fellow riders. Despite qualifying 4th Bulega started the final race at Valencia in 16th place due to 12 grid penalty and finished the race at 17th losing the Rookie of the year title to Joan Mir. Bulega finished the championship at 7th place with 129 points. Migno achieved two third places (Assen and Valencia) and finished the season in 17th place with 63 points.
In 2017 both Migno and Bulega were confirmed. In a year where formed Rookie of the Year rival Joan Mir won the Moto3 championship, Bulega struggled to follow up his debut season, his difficulties being bad qualifying strategies and bad starts (mainly due to his height). His best result in the year is a 4th place on Germany, one of the few times he was able to qualify on the top 6, and some 5th places, including one in his "home" race in the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini race (and in Argentina). He finished the disappointing year only in 12th place, with 81 points. Migno won the home gran prix (Mugello) and finished the season in 9th place with 118 points.
In 2018 Bulega was initially confirmed (then replaced by Celestino Vietti due to injury) and was selected Dennis Foggia as second rider. Bulega's first five 2018 races were even worse than last year's. He retired in the first four races and finished only on the fifth race, with a 17th place in Spain, being one of the two regular drivers to never score points in the first five races of the year. Both Vietti and Foggia achieved a third place as best result of the season.
In 2019 Vietti and Foggia were confirmed as regular riders. Vietti achieved three podiums (Spain, Catalonia and Japan), one pole and one fastest lap, finishing the season 6th with 135 points. Foggia reached a third place in Aragon as best result and a fastest lap in Netherland, finishing the season 12th with 97 points.
Moto2.
In 2017 the team decided to take part in the Moto2 class also and selected Bagnaia and Stefano Manzi as riders.
In just his fourth ever Moto2 race at Jerez Bagnaia finished 2nd. He finished 2nd in the next race as well at Le Mans after having qualified in 2nd place, missing pole position to Thomas Lüthi by just 0.026 seconds. Bagnaia took a third podium at Sachsenring, finishing 3rd behind Franco Morbidelli who won the race and Miguel Oliveira who came in second. At Misano Bagnaia originally finished the race 4th behind Dominique Aegerter, Thomas Lüthi, and Hafizh Syahrin however Aegerter was later disqualified promoting him to his 4th podium of the season. He was crowned Moto2 Rookie of the year after the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. He finished his rookie season with 174 points to place 5th in the Moto2 Championship, scoring points in 16 of the 18 races. Manzi finished the season in 25th place with 14 points.
In 2018 Bagnaia was confirmed and was selected Luca Marini, Rossi's step brother, as second rider.
Bagnaia opened the season with a win in Qatar, having led the race from start to finish. Bagnaia took a second win in Austin after a hard fight with Álex Márquez winning the race with a gap of 2.4 seconds and also setting the fastest lap of the race. At Jerez Bagnaia finished 3rd behind Lorenzo Baldassarri and Miguel Oliveira holding his starting grid position. Bagnaia took his first pole position in Moto2 at Le Mans, like the race in Qatar he led from start to finish. The win was also his 3rd podium at Le Mans since 2015. Bagnaia took a 4th win at Assen, starting the race from Pole Position and leading the entire race. After qualifying 3rd on the grid in Sachsenring Bagnaia finished the race down in 12 place, having been forced outside of the track after Mattia Pasini fell down in front of him in the last corner on the second lap, despite being down in 26th position he still made up fourteen places, including overtaking Álex Márquez on the final lap in the last corner. At Brno Bagnaia finished third and lost the championship lead to Oliveira. He retook the championship lead at Austria, winning his 5th race of the season. Bagnaia won his sixth race of the season at Misano from pole position. He took a 5th straight podium at Buriram, winning the race with his teammate Luca Marini in second place. He took his 8th win of the season at Motegi after Fabio Quartararo who initially won the race was disqualified due to low tyre pressure. After finishing 3rd at Sepang he was crowned Moto2 World Champion with his 12th podium of the season. Marini achieved his first podium in Germany and his first victory in Malaysia, concluding the season 7th with 147 points.
In 2019 Marini was confirmed and Bulega was selected as second rider. Marini won two races (Thailand and Japan), achieved a second place (Italy), a third place (Netherland), a pole position (Japan) and a fastest lap (Austria), finishing the season 6th with 190 points. Bulega finished 17th with 48 points with a 7th place as best result of the season.