The Italian joins VR46 for the 2024 season after losing his Gresini ride to Marc Marquez for this year.

Last year’s Qatar Grand Prix winner has never been part of the VR46 Academy stable, but has been left «surprised» by the level of support he has received from the structure so far in 2024.

«Well, let’s say the structure of VR46 is huge, it’s incredible,» he said.

«Day by day they are surprising me more and more, because the focus of everyone is to bring everything to the rider, to protect the rider, to try to make the rider shine.

«So, it’s not like a company who does it just for business. It’s a team that wants to win and to give the maximum to the riders to win.

«So, it gives me a boost and confidence to push and to stay focused always.

«So, for sure with their help, I’m learning, I’m improving. I’m sure that during the year you will see some changes on my side.»

Because Di Giannantonio – who sits 10th in the standings after two rounds in 2024 – is still not a VR46 Academy member, his training programme differs from that of Francesco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

And while he plans to hold some of his training sessions with the VR46 Academy, he will largely continue with his own programme.

«I’m part of the team, not part of the academy,» he added.

«So it’s different. And I will continue to live in Rome, because we thought that it was better to continue to have my programme, that at the end of last year was working.

«So just mix the few things they can bring to me and maybe I can also bring to them for the other riders.

«So, we are planning to do some sessions together because for sure they can help me in some ways.

«They will follow me a bit more on the training set-up. And I have like their full support if I need to do one extra day or something, they can help me.

«And it’s a new thing for me because all the riders organise our weekly routine by ourselves and having a team also at home that can help you in trainings and organising for the preparation for the races is a great step for me.»

Watch: MotoGP’s €4.2 Billion Take Over by Liberty Media — Explained

On Monday 1 April, Liberty announced it had acquired 86% ownership of Dorna Sports and MotoGP as part of a deal valued at €4.2 billion.

With both F1 and MotoGP now under Liberty’s umbrella, talks of a potential joint race weekend for the two series has surfaced again.

In an exclusive first interview with Ezpeleta following Monday’s announcement, with Motorsport.com’s Spanish MotoGP podcast Por Orejas, the executive says a joint event is not out of the question but isn’t something being considered in the short term.

«Well, it’s something that at the moment, for obvious reasons, is not in the immediate plans and it’s not something that we are working on, but it’s not something that we are ruling out for the medium-term future either,” Ezpeleta said.

“But having said that, the reality is that it makes limited sense, because at the end of the day we have some events with our own fan base, which is a different fan base in most places to the Formula 1 fan base.

“They sell, they sell out in many circuits and so do we, so getting all of us together in the same event, in the same weekend, has difficulties and the return on investment is not very clear today.

“Then you also have problems with the different sponsors, the TV cameras, so it is a project, or it would be a rather complicated project, let’s say.

“Then again, there are a number of circuits that can run both [series], but there are not so many, so it is a project that is not discarded, but we are not working on it either.”

Fans of Miguel Oliveira, Trackhouse Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The future of World Superbikes under the new Liberty deal is unclear at this stage, but for the time being Ezpeleta says there is no plans for MotoGP and the production-based series to host any shared events.

“It’s something that has been talked about for a long time and the reality, being very direct, I do not know the benefit,” he added.

“Clearly it would make exposure to Superbike more relevant, MotoGP I think would have little to do there.

“There is quite an important crossover of fans and I don’t know if the people who go to Montmelo for Superbikes… I think they also go to MotoGP.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense with both together because you are not going to attract more people and you have to pay for both things, Superbike and MotoGP, so it doesn’t make much sense at the moment.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont and German Garcia Casanova

Last year’s Qatar Grand Prix winner found refuge at Valentino Rossi’s team having lost his Gresini Ducati ride to Marc Marquez towards the latter half of the season.

Di Giannantonio’s VR46 reprieve came amid a substantial form jump that led to his first top five, podium and win results in the premier class.

As such, more was expected of di Giannantonio coming into his third year in MotoGP in 2024.

But after a solid pre-season, Di Giannantonio has yet to show any standout results, amassing just 15 points from the first two rounds of the campaign in Qatar and Portugal.

Seventh at the Qatar GP is the highlight so far, while 10th in Portugal was somewhat gifted due to several crashes in front of him.

While frustrated by his slow start, di Giannantonio says the lessons of 2023 when simply breaking into the top 10 was «celebrated like hell» at the same stage of the season have made him more pragmatic.

«50/50, honestly, because for sure in the tests we have been amazing,» he said when asked if it was frustrating not to be able to replicate his strong winter form so far.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

«We had plenty of time to work together with the team and to really have the bike like a second skin – so, to build the bike around you.

«But for sure we know we only had three months of working together, so they still need to understand 100% what I need and also I have to give my maximum to them.

«But overall, with all the issues we had till now, we did an OK job. So, last year at the beginning of the year we were celebrating like hell top 10 finishes.

«So, I think we’re in a good way and I’m sure our bright days will come soon.»

Di Giannantonio does sit as the leading VR46 rider in the standings in 10th after the opening two rounds, as team-mate Marco Bezzecchi has struggled immensely to adapt to the GP23.

The deal could be announced in the coming days, ahead of the third round of the 2024 MotoGP season at the Americas Grand Prix on 12-14 April.

Motorsport.com understands that executives from Liberty and Dorna Sports, the promoter of the MotoGP, WorldSBK and MotoE World Championships, finalised the deal weeks ago.

In fact, the intention of both parties was to make it official before the first grand prix of the year in Qatar.

At that time, however, concerns about the intervention of the European Commission body that regulates the competition market froze the move.

While one side advocated moving forward, the other preferred to wait for developments.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday afternoon that the takeover can be considered a done deal, although the business daily also pointed out that it would be very strange if those responsible for applying competitions law did not analyse the case.

In this regard, it is worth noting that CVC Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based investment fund, owned both F1 and MotoGP in the past, but was forced to divest one in 2006 by European antitrust authorities — with MotoGP being sold.

While Liberty has always been the preferred bid of Dorna executives, there have also been moves in recent times by Qatar Sports Investments, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and TKO, the media and entertainment conglomerate that, among other things, owns the rights to the UFC Championship.

In the last year, the sale of Dorna became one of the priorities of Bridgepoint and the Canadian pension fund (CPPIB).

Bridgepoint, which became a shareholder in 2006 — it bought its shares from CVC — owns about 40% of the shares, while CPPIB manages 38%.

Enea Bastianini, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Both firms are structured around Global Racing LX2, a Luxembourg company. The rest (22%) is shared between Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO, who has been in charge of operations since 1992, and a small group of managers.

In 2022, Dorna Sports generated a turnover of €474.8 million, an increase of 33% over the previous year, although the year ended with a loss of €7.8m, as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

At the beginning of 2022, the Madrid-based company refinanced €975m of debt, a resource that allowed it to strengthen its liquidity, and also to distribute dividends worth €390m to its shareholders.

The change of model that Liberty applied to Formula 1 after finalising its acquisition in 2016 has led the series to skyrocket its level of popularity to levels never seen before.

The momentum of Drive to Survive, the Netflix documentary series that coincided in time with the pandemic, globalised a sporting competition that until then was still considered a niche.

At the same time, the continued expansion of the race calendar — which stands at 24 in 2024 — has caused profits to soar. With the success of its entry into F1, Liberty now wants to replicate that success with MotoGP.

Watch: MotoGP: Jorge Martin masters Portimao | 2024 #PortugueseGP