Rossi: VR46 to announce 2022 MotoGP bikes 'next week'

Following official confirmation that Gresini will switch to Ducati in 2022, the spotlight now turns to the machinery for Valentino Rossi's VR46 team, which will make its MotoGP debut with backing from Aramco next season.

Rossi had initially suggested talks were underway with 'Aprilia, Yamaha, Ducati… Suzuki also', but that quartet was later reduced to a '50-50' choice between Yamaha and Ducati.

While VR46 at one stage appeared in with a real chance of whipping the satellite M1 supply from under the nose of the Petronas team Rossi currently races for, the VR46 Yamaha talks seem to have died down.

As such, VR46 are now expected to sign up with Ducati, meaning the Factory would field eight bikes on the MotoGP grid for the first time since 2016.

"I think that we will give some official news next week, in the days after Germany and before Assen," Rossi said on Thursday at the Sachsenring.

Like Gresini, VR46 is tipped to use this year's GP21 Desmosedicis, with the Official team and Pramac using GP22s.

One seat will go to Rossi's younger brother Luca Marini, currently spending his rookie season at the Avintia team whose grid places VR46 will effectively take over from 2022-2026.

VR46 Moto2 rider Marco Bezzecchi is tipped for the second ride, assuming Rossi himself does not want to take the seat himself.

The Doctor says he will make a decision on his MotoGP future during the summer break, meaning that the next two races before the hiatus - Sachsenring and Assen, in the space of a week - are, "Very important. Because the results are very important and we want more, we want to try to be stronger and to have some better results, take more points and make good races.

"So for sure these two races before the summer break are very important," said Rossi, no higher than tenth place in a race so far this year.

The 42-year-old added of this weekend: "Here in Germany is always very interesting because the layout of the track is very particular, all on the left, and it's always very difficult to be fast in this track.

"Looks like we also have to face a high temperature because it's very hot! I don’t remember this temperature in the past in Sachsenring. And we will see. because anyway it's been two years since we came here. So we have to understand the difference after two years and we hope to be strong.

"I was quite fast in the Monday test at Barcelona, I finished in P10 but my pace with a race tyre was quite fast, so we will see our level during this weekend."