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Marc VDS is undoubtedly one of the excellences of the MotoGP paddock. Until 2018 we saw it involved in MotoGP, now the Belgian team's efforts are focused exclusively on Moto2, where Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino are keeping the team’s colours flying high, the latter leader of the championship standings ahead of Pedro Acosta.
The team needs very little in the way of introduction, if we consider that the boss is the famous Count Marc Van Der Straten, an eccentric patron of the arts, as well as a descendant of the noble dynasty that founded the famous beer, Stella Artois.
On the other hand, Marina Rossi, Sam Lowes' wife, is the person in charge of track operations, who can boast twenty years of experience in the MotoGP paddock as well as having won four world titles: the first with Aoyama at the time of Scot in 250cc, then those with Rabat, Morbidelli and Alex Marquez, all branded Marc VDS.
The fact is that ten days ago, on the eve of the Misano SBK round, the team director met up with Paolo Ciabatti. The manager explored with the latter the opportunity to enter Superbike in 2024 with Ducati, trying to understand what the possibilities might be, but above all the relative costs to be incurred. An operation that in economic terms exceeds one million euros between motorcycles, engines, spare parts, and logistics.
For the moment it has just been a provisional sounding-out of the situation and nothing more. However, one thing is certain: after the meeting with Ciabatti, Marina Rossi certainly has clearer ideas about what the leap into the world of production-based racing entails next year. The next stage will be talks with Count Marc Van Der Straten, who will have the final word, i.e. whether to give the green light to the operation.
If successful, Marc VDS will come to World Superbike with just one bike, putting it in the hands of Sam Lowes, who after so many years in Moto2 will therefore return to the paddock he lived in up to ten years ago, when he was in Supersport. Otherwise, it will all end in nothing.
There certainly isn't much time to lose, because the Ducati SBK teams are already planning for 2024. On the technical side, the deadline for planning the season with the Borgo Panigale manufacturer is set for September. Time then begins to run out.
