Mixed motorsport era 1 entered by Marc VDS in the
FIA GT1 World Championship Based in
Gosselies, Belgium, Marc VDS began competing in the
Belcar series as part of the racing program for the
Gillet Vertigo, a Belgian sports car, under the
Belgian Racing title. By 2005 the Gillet program expanded to include the international
FIA GT Championship, although the team was not allowed to compete for the season championship due to the low production of road legal Vertigos. Despite continued development for several years, the Gillet program ended in 2008 and van der Straten rebranded the team as Marc VDS for the 2009 season. The team however remained involved in the
FIA GT Championship at the behest of Jean Michel Delporte and
Bas Leinders by becoming one of two development teams for the
Matech Ford GT, shifting the team to the GT1 category. Marc VDS also expanded their program through the purchase of a
Volkswagen Buggy TDI
Rally raid for the
2010 Dakar Rally. After their year of development in FIA GT, Marc VDS was one of twelve teams granted entry in the inaugural
FIA GT1 World Championship in
2010, where they would retain their Ford GT. The 2010 GT1 program also included an entry in the
Le Mans Series'
1000 km of Spa as well as the
24 Hours of Le Mans. Shortly after entering FIA GT1, Marc VDS also announced their merger with Michael Bartholemy and
Didier de Radiguès' entry in the new
Moto2 category of
Grand Prix motorcycle racing, where riders
Scott Redding and
Héctor Faubel would compete on
Suter bikes. Marc VDS also added a fourth program to 2010 by co-developing a
Ford Mustang with
Multimatic Motorsports of Canada for use in the
FIA GT3 European Championship. celebrating winning his home GP in Barcelona with fellow
Catalan winners of the other classes, brothers
Álex and
Marc Márquez, en route to his 2014 Moto2 championship on the Marc VDS
Suter MMX
Moto2 motorcycle In 2013, Marc VDS had a good showing in Moto2, with their riders
Scott Redding and
Mika Kallio finishing 2nd and 4th in the championship. The team also expanded their motorcycle grand prix programme into the
Moto3 category with
Kalex-built and
KTM-powered machinery with Belgian rider
Livio Loi. This expansion proved a challenge, with Loi and Marc VDS barely managing to finish in the points in 4 out of 15 entered races that season. The troubles continued the following season, and despite a good 4th place finish at the third race in
Argentina, Livio failed to place better than 19th in the following 6 races. Livio was ultimately replaced mid-season with Spanish rider
Jorge Navarro for the remainder of the season. 2014 was, however, the first taste of major success for Marc VDS in the Moto2 class, where their riders
Tito Rabat and
Mika Kallio finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the rider's championship. For 2015, Marc VDS dropped their difficult Moto3 programme, as they were presented with the opportunity to run a satellite Honda bike in the premier MotoGP class. Former long-time Marc VDS rider
Scott Redding returned for this season. Redding and Marc VDS were reasonably successful from the off, consistently finishing in points-scoring positions and even achieving a 3rd place podium position in
San Marino. The team finished a respectable 8th in the team's championship, significantly ahead of even some teams who regularly fielded two riders. In July 2015, Bas Leinders announced he had parted from the team. In October 2015, Marc van der Straten announced that the sportscar racing programme would end at the conclusion of the 2015 season. He claimed he had lost confidence in his managers because they had taken too great a risk with his money. In addition, the
SRO Motorsports Group, organizer of the
Blancpain GT Series, introduced a new regulation for the
24 Hours of Spa which stated that pro teams must compete in all races of the series to be eligible for the 24 Hours. Van der Straten did not like this decision, as the team only wished to participate in the 24 Hours of Spa. Accordingly, the Marc VDS Racing Team decided to concentrate solely on two-wheeled motorsports.
Motorcycle Grand Prix era on the Marc VDS
Kalex Moto2 bike in
2016 In 2016, Marc VDS fielded two bikes in the
MotoGP class, ridden by Australian
Jack Miller and their former Moto2 champion
Tito Rabat. Rabat was able to finish consistently in the points, but it was Jack Miller who gave the Marc VDS team their first taste of ultimate success at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, by winning a rain-soaked
Assen TT. The win was the first for a non-factory team in nearly a decade, dating back to the
2006 Portuguese GP. 2017 was another strong year for Marc VDS. In MotoGP, both riders continued with the team, and thanks to more consistent performances from both, Marc VDS finished 7th in the team's championship with 117 points, their best finish in the class to date. In the Moto2 class, rider
Franco Morbidelli achieved 8 wins from 18 rounds, sealing another rider's championship for the team. Second rider
Álex Márquez also managed three further wins, securing 4th place on the year. For 2018, Morbidelli was promoted to the MotoGP squad alongside his Moto2 runner-up
Thomas Lüthi. Morbidelli was able to consistently finish in the low point-scoring positions, thus being crowned rookie of the year, but Lüthi failed to score a single point that season. The team finished second-to-last in the team's championship in 11th. During the course of the season, team leader Bartholemy left the team by “mutual agreement”, according to a Marc VDS statement, after reports in German media claimed he had been embezzling team funds. As a result of this upheaval and a desire of the MotoGP commercial rights holder
Dorna Sports to reduce grid sizes, Marc VDS was dropped from the MotoGP class at the end of 2018. In Moto2 the team finished 3rd in the team standings despite not earning a single win in the class, at the end of the season
Joan Mir prematurely ended his three year contract with Marc VDS early to move up to the MotoGP class to take over the vacant Suzuki seat. In 2019, Marc VDS returned to winning ways in Moto2 with
Álex Márquez taking 5 wins and 10 podiums en route to the rider's championship. Teammate
Xavi Vierge's inconsistent results however relegated the team to just 4th place in the team's championship. The team also joined in the
inaugural MotoE season with
Mike Di Meglio taking pole, fastest lap, and the win at the
Austrian round. In 2020, the team achieved second place in the Moto2 teams' championship on the backs of riders
Sam Lowes' and
Augusto Fernández's performances (3 wins, 4 further podiums and 6 further top 5 finishes). It was the team's best result since the teams' championship was counted in Moto2. In MotoE, Di Miglio achieved two podium finishes and ended the season in fourth position overall. 2021 saw Marc VDS and rider Di Meglio elect to leave the MotoE class, citing scheduling conflicts with Di Meglio's
Endurance World Championship commitments. The team continued in Moto2 with Lowes and Fernández, the former sweeping both races of the season-opening double header from pole in Qatar. With a further win in
Emilia-Romagna and two further podium finishes from Lowes and six podium finishes from Fernández, Marc VDS again achieved second place in the teams' championship.
World Superbike Marc VDS entered the
Superbike World Championship with long-time Moto2 rider
Sam Lowes racing on a
Ducati Panigale V4R, beginning from the
2024 season. ==Motorsports results==