Nicolo Bulega will leave the VR46 Riders Academy in 2020. With his departure from Valentino Rossi's set-up, the relationship with his current team, the Sky Racing Team VR46 – which is part of the Moto2™ World Championship – will also come to an end.
Bulega's father, who is also his manager and a former Grand Prix racer, said: “After six seasons, in which we have mutually shared moments of great sporting satisfactions, alternated also with those very difficult moments that all sports offer, JNB Sport Business announces that for the 2020 season the management agreements with the VR46 have not been renewed. The Riders Academy neither with the Sky Racing Team VR46 of our driver Nicolò Bulega”.
"The VR46 for me was like a second family; for the past six years I have been sharing with Vale, Uccio, Albi, Barbara and my friends and fellow riders of the Academy, most of the hours every day,” said Nicolò. "From them, I learned a lot and I feel privileged for having been part of this group and being able to proudly say that I was a rider of my absolute idol Valentino Rossi". After so many seasons with the same colours and with the same people however, now is the time when I have to try to walk with my legs and undertake new professional experiences to complete myself as a sportsman and as a man."
There is no confirmation of where Bulega will end up, with the majority of the Moto2™ grid still undecided. The latest signing was Iker Lecuona, who will join the Red Bull KTM Ajo outfit in 2020.
"I want to thank Valentino Rossi, who believed in me and for me, he was – and I hope he can stay – an older brother, a friend, a great example. I thank Uccio, a friend with whom I have always had an excellent relationship and friendship with. But the list of people to thank is endless, and I would also like to give special thanks to Sky, who has always believed in me."