Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Sponsorship Liveries

Grand Prix motorcycle racing sponsorship liveries have been used since the late 1960s, replacing the previously used national colours. With sponsors becoming more important with the rising costs in the motorcycle CC classes, many teams wanted to be able to display the logos of their sponsors as clearly as possible.

The liveries are usually changed for every season in the sport, marking the marketing ideas of the sponsors. Some teams keep some consistency over the years however, like the red colour of Ducati, which has its origin in a shade of red known as rosso corsa being the national racing colour of Italy. Tobacco and alcohol advertising was common in motorsport, however as bans spread throughout the world, teams used an alternate livery which alluded to the tobacco or alcohol sponsor, or entirely eliminated their name when in nations with a ban – this is now only seen on Ducati's Marlboro sponsored vehicles – where the sponsor is technically banned from advertising in all host nations. At historical events, bikes are allowed to use the livery which was used when the bike was actively competing.

SKY VR46 MotoGP

The SKY Racing Team VR46 is a motorcycle racing team owned by Valentino Rossi and based in Tavullia (Marche, Italy). The team enters Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the Moto2 category with Kalex chassis and previously in Moto3 category with KTM RC250GP motorcycles. The team manager is the former road racer Pablo Nieto. The team has collected 24 wins (9 in Moto3 and 15 in Moto2) and one riders' championship (with Bagnaia in 2018). Expanded to MotoGP in 2021 with Esponsorama Racing

Ángel Nieto Team

Ángel Nieto Team (formerly Aspar Racing Team) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racing team from Spain, currently competing in the MotoGP and Moto3 World Championships.

In the 2010 season the Aspar team entered the MotoGP class with Héctor Barberá, who finished in twelfth place aboard a Ducati Desmosedici GP10. Simón finished in second place in the inaugural Moto2 campaign, with teammate Mike Di Meglio finishing in twentieth place. Both riders started the season on Honda-powered RSV Motors frames, switching to a Suter chassis after two races. Nicolás Terol finished in second place in the 125cc class while his teammate Bradley Smith finished fourth, both riding Aprilia RSA 125 motorcycles.

Barberá remained with the team for 2011, recording a best result of 6th at the Spanish Grand Prix. The team expanded to two bikes in 2012, switching from Ducati to ART. Aleix Espargaró and Randy de Puniet dominated the recently created CRT (Claiming Rule Teams) class for two straight years. In 2014, Aspar entered two Honda bikes, after hiring former World Champion Nicky Hayden to partner Hiroshi Aoyama. The duo scored points regularly, but Espargaró claimed a 3rd straight title in the CRT class with Forward Racing. Irishman Eugene Laverty joined the team in 2015, the last year for Hayden in the World Championship before switching to the Superbike World Championship.

Before the 2018 season began, the team changed their name from Aspar Racing Team to Ángel Nieto Team, as a tribute by former team principal Jorge Fernandez to his former compatriot Ángel Nieto. The team also announced Ángel's son Gelete as the new team principal.

MotoGP

File:Hector Barbera 2010 Qatar.jpg, Héctor Barberá riding the Aspar Ducati GP10 at the 2010 Qatar Grand Prix.
File:Hector Barbera 2011 Estoril.jpg, Héctor Barberá riding the Aspar Ducati GP11 at the 2011 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Aprilia

Despite being a relatively small company by global motorcycling standards, Aprilia is very active in motorcycle sports. It contested many Road Racing formulae, including the now-defunct 125, 250 and 500cc Grand Prix classes of the FIM World Championship. From 2002 to 2004 they participated in the FIM MotoGP World Championship, and from 1999 to 2002 they participated in the FIM Superbike World Championship. Aprilia has returned to World Superbike since the 2009 season and in MotoGP since the 2012 season.

Aprilia made their international racing debut in the Motocross World Championship competing in the 125cc class from 1976 until 1981 with a best result being a fifth place in the 1979 season with rider Corrado Maddi. The firm then focused on the Grand Prix road racing world championships in 1985 and since then it has seen varying successes. Aprilia won their first world championship race at the 1991 Czechoslovak motorcycle Grand Prix with rider Alessandro Gramigni winning the 125cc race. In 1992 they won their first road racing world championship with Gramigni winning the 125cc class. They continued to be successful in the smaller displacement categories, winning numerous races and championships in the 125 and 250cc Grand Prix classes.

However, their 500 cc Grand Prix bikes failed to attain the same success. They began campaigning in the 500cc class in 1994 with a 250 V twin motor enlarged to 380cc in hopes of using its lighter weight and nimble handling as an advantage against the heavier, V4 engine bikes used by the competition. The bike eventually displaced 430cc and had its best result with a third place by rider Doriano Romboni at the 1997 Dutch TT but, could never overcome power disadvantage during the starting line sprint and was withdrawn at the end of the 1997 season for further development. Their first MotoGP effort, dubbed the Aprilia RS Cube, was technically advanced but difficult to ride and performed poorly in the championship. The Cube did, however, pioneer many advanced technologies including ride by wire throttle and pneumatic valve actuation systems. Aprilia left the MotoGP class at the end of 2004 and then left the lower classes when two-stroke engines were banned. Aprilia set the record for the most points earned by a manufacturer in a single season from the 125cc class with 410 points in 2007. It was also the highest points earned by a constructor in Grand Prix motorcycle racing's history until 2011 when 420 points were won by the same bikes winning 16 out of 17 races.

Aprilia rejoined the MotoGP class in 2012, taking advantage of the newly introduced Claiming Rule Team category that encouraged independent teams with lower budgets to use bikes from manufacturers not officially involved in MotoGP. Aprilia supplied RSV4 SBK-derived bikes under the ART (Aprilia Racing Technology) name to Aspar, Paul Bird Motorsport and Speed Master teams. In both the 2012 and 2013 seasons Aprilia's ART machinery stood out as the best CRT bikes.

For 2015 Aprilia returned to the world championship with a factory effort.

500cc/MotoGP

File:Doriano Romboni 1996 Japanese GP.jpg, Doriano Romboni, riding his Aprilia RSW-2 500 in the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix.
File:Noriyuki Haga 2003 Japanese GP.jpg, Noriyuki Haga, riding his Aprilia RS Cube in the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix.
File:Marco Melandri MotoGP-2015.JPG, Marco Melandri on his Aprilia RS-GP during the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix.

Avintia Racing

Avintia Racing is a motorcycle racing team currently competing in the MotoGP World Championship.

In 2012 the team changed its name to Avintia Racing, following an alliance between BQR and the Grupo Avintia. The team debuted in the MotoGP class as a Claiming Rule Team using both FTR Moto and Inmotec frames badged as BQR, powered by Kawasaki engines. The riders were Iván Silva and Yonny Hernández. In 2013 Avintia entered the MotoGP class with Kawasaki-engined FTR frames, fielding two bikes for Hiroshi Aoyama and Héctor Barberá.

For the 2014 season Aoyama was replaced by Mike Di Meglio and the team fielded a new bike badged as the Avintia GP14, reportedly based on the 2007-2009 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR with some input from Kawasaki. Following a mid-season agreement between Avintia and Ducati, Barberá received an Open-specification Ducati Desmosedici for the last five rounds.

In 2015 the team entered two Open class Desmosedici GP14 motorcycles, for Barberá and Di Meglio. For 2016 Di Meglio was replaced by Loris Baz. In 2017 the team changed its name to Reale Esponsorama Racing.

MotoGP

File:Mike DI MEGLIO - Avintia Racing - MotoGP 2014 - Le Mans (14033318009).jpg, Mike Di Meglio, riding his Ducati Avintia at the 2014 French Grand Prix.
File:Avintia Ducati MotoGP Hector Barbera 2015.JPG, The Ducati Avintia, ridden by Héctor Barberá in the 2015 season on display.
File:Avintia Ducati MotoGP Hector Barbera 2015 b.JPG, The 2015 Ducati Avintia of Héctor Barberá from another angle.

Cagiva

At the end of the 1970s, Cagiva began campaigning the Grand Prix motorcycle racing circuit. Randy Mamola was its lead rider from 1988 to 1990, and he achieved Cagiva’s first podium result. The company would also have some technical assistance from Yamaha. In 1991 it signed former world champion Eddie Lawson

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