The team was created in 2014 by Valentino Rossi with a specific mandate: to identify and nurture young Italian riders at a time when Spanish talent had come to dominate the entry-level classes. Rossi's former Cagiva teammate Vittoriano Guareschi served as the initial team manager, replaced from 2015 by Pablo Nieto alongside Alessio Salucci and Carlo Alberto Tebaldi.
The Moto3 program launched with Romano Fenati and the seventeen-year-old Francesco Bagnaia. Fenati delivered four wins in the debut 2014 season and finished fifth overall. The team evolved through several rider combinations over subsequent years, including Andrea Migno, Nicolò Bulega, Dennis Foggia, and Celestino Vietti.
Fenati's relationship with the team was fractious. He finished 2015 with consistent top-five results but poor qualifying hurt his standings. In 2016 he was dismissed mid-season following a disciplinary dispute with team management, replaced by Lorenzo Dalla Porta. Bulega, in his 2016 debut, achieved his first podium at Jerez and finished seventh in the championship.
By 2017 the program faced development challenges: Bulega struggled with race starts due to his height, while Migno won his home Grand Prix at Mugello. Foggia and Vietti joined in subsequent seasons. In 2019, Vietti scored three podiums including results in Spain, Catalonia, and Japan. The 2020 season saw Vietti take two race wins alongside Andrea Migno, with the team finishing third in the Moto3 teams' championship. VR46 left Moto3 after 2020.
The Moto2 division launched in 2017 with Bagnaia as the headline rider. He finished fifth overall in his debut Moto2 season, earning the Rookie of the Year award after collecting four podiums including a second place in only his fourth Moto2 race at Jerez.
The 2018 season was transformative. Bagnaia — partnered by Luca Marini, Rossi's half-brother — produced one of the most dominant Moto2 championship campaigns in the modern era: eight wins, twelve podiums, the Moto2 World Championship, and the fastest lap award. Marini himself won in Malaysia and finished seventh overall. The team placed second in the Moto2 teams' standings.
In 2019, Marini won in Thailand and Japan, while Nicolò Bulega returned as his teammate. For 2020, Marini was joined by Marco Bezzecchi. Both riders flourished: Marini took three wins and six podiums, Bezzecchi two wins and seven podiums, and VR46 claimed the Moto2 teams' championship — its first — with both riders finishing second and fourth respectively in the riders' standings.
In 2021, Bezzecchi was joined by Vietti from the Moto3 program; Bezzecchi scored a win and seven podiums and the team finished third. For 2022, Vietti partnered Niccolò Antonelli, with Vietti taking his first Moto2 class victory at the season opener in Qatar. From 2023, the team's Moto2 grid slots were transferred to the Fantic brand, with Fantic branding already appearing on VR46 bikes from the 2022 Silverstone round.
Sky Racing Team VR46 proved that a structured, values-driven academy could reliably produce elite-level Grand Prix talent. Bagnaia went on to win back-to-back MotoGP world championships in 2022 and 2023 with Ducati. Marini, Bezzecchi, and Vietti all made MotoGP debuts. The junior program's work fed directly into VR46's eventual MotoGP factory ambitions, with the same management structure, paddock culture, and Ducati relationship carrying through from the Moto3 beginnings to the premier class.