The team was created by Rossi in response to the wave of Spanish riders that had come to dominate Grand Prix racing in the early 21st century. Its stated mission was to identify and nurture young Italian talent through the lower championship tiers before graduating riders to the top flight. Pablo Nieto, a former road racer and longtime associate of Rossi, serves as team manager. The Avintia/Esponsorama grid slots vacated at the end of 2021 allowed VR46 to enter MotoGP directly for 2022.
The team entered the Moto3 World Championship in 2014 as Sky Racing Team VR46 with Romano Fenati and the then-teenage Francesco Bagnaia. Fenati proved quick but inconsistent, scoring four wins over his first two seasons while repeatedly running into disciplinary problems; he was released mid-2016 following a disagreement with team management. Bagnaia, hindered by injury in 2014, moved up to Moto2 after one season.
Nicolò Bulega and Andrea Migno carried the team through 2016–2019. Migno gave the squad its most emotional Moto3 result when he won his home race at Mugello in 2017. Celestino Vietti emerged as a consistent podium threat from 2019 onwards, while Dennis Foggia also accumulated points. The team left Moto3 after 2020, citing a shortage of suitable Italian talent relative to the number of Italian teams already active in the class. Across seven seasons it collected nine Moto3 victories.
VR46 moved into Moto2 for 2017 with Bagnaia and Stefano Manzi. Bagnaia was immediately rapid, scoring three podiums in his first four Moto2 starts and finishing fifth in the championship as Rookie of the Year. The 2018 season was exceptional: Bagnaia won eight races from pole and took the Moto2 World Championship, with his teammate Luca Marini — Rossi's half-brother — also claiming a victory in Malaysia. The VR46 Moto2 team finished second in the teams' standings that year.
Marini continued into 2019 alongside Bulega, winning in Thailand and Japan. The partnership with Marco Bezzecchi for 2020 was the most successful year: Marini and Bezzecchi combined for five race wins and thirteen podiums, handing VR46 its first teams' championship in Moto2. In 2021 Bezzecchi added one win and seven podiums, keeping the team third in the standings. Vietti won the 2022 season opener in Qatar before the VR46 Moto2 program was effectively absorbed into a new Fantic-branded team from Silverstone 2022 onwards, ending the direct VR46 Moto2 entry after six seasons.
Marini made his MotoGP debut in 2021 under a cooperative arrangement with Esponsorama Racing, racing with Sky VR46 livery under Italian registry. From 2022 VR46 held its own MotoGP grid entries, fielding Marini and Bezzecchi on Ducati Desmosedici machinery as a Ducati satellite team following a deal signed in June 2021.
Bezzecchi's 2023 campaign was the team's most prominent in MotoGP: he took victories in Argentina, France, and India and mounted a genuine championship challenge before injuries and an older-specification motorcycle limited his second half of the season. In October 2023 Indonesian lubricant brand Pertamina became the team's title sponsor, giving the entry its current name. For 2024 Marini left to join Repsol Honda, replaced by Fabio Di Giannantonio. Bezzecchi departed after 2024 to join Aprilia, with Franco Morbidelli arriving from Pramac Racing for 2025. From the 2025 season Ducati elevated VR46 to factory-backed status, supplying official Desmosedici machinery to Di Giannantonio.
Across all categories the VR46 Racing Team has accumulated 32 race victories — nine in Moto3, nineteen in Moto2, and four in MotoGP — as well as one riders' world championship (Bagnaia, Moto2 2018) and one teams' championship (Moto2 2020). The team demonstrated that a structured talent-development pathway could produce MotoGP-level competitors, with Bagnaia going on to win the MotoGP World Championship twice (2022, 2023) after leaving the VR46 stable for the Ducati factory team.