Pablo Nieto wants Luca Marini in MotoGP, but Avintia says 'no'

"We want Luca Marini to go to MotoGP with Avintia and Ducati, which is the only bike available".

After several rumours, confirmation of this was given to the Spanish newspaper AS by Pablo Nieto, team manager of the Sky VR46 team.

We wrote about this operation recently, also anticipating that VR46 was a candidate to take over from the Avintia team as early as 2021, but this is not necessarily possible.

For the Spanish team, in fact, Enea Bastianini has already signed with Ducati and the second rider is Tito Rabat. It is reported that Ducati has proposed to Tito, in exchange for him abandoning, a place in Superbike, as it did in recent times with Danilo Petrucci, but Raoul Romero, owner of the Andorran team, has denied this arrangement.

"We have a contract with Tito Rabat and we want to continue with him. It seems to us that he gets closer to the top every day, that he only needs half a second and, in addition, he gives us commercial advantages. Bastianini has signed with Ducati and if they want Marini to come, then let them come and focus on him, and we'll see what happens with Rabat or if he will be paired with Marini and Bastianini will have to be replaced by Ducati. The places in the team are mine and next year I will still be with Rabat", Romero said.

Pablo Nieto then confirmed that what was said, namely that VR46 was planning to enter with its team in 2021, is simply not true.