Fausto Gresini – RIP
After nearly two months battling against Covid, Fausto Gresini has sadly passed away, only a few days after turning 60. He passed at 2002 AEDT, Tuesday, February 23. He had rallied in recent days but a subsequent brain bleed became too much for him to overcome.
2021 would have been his 25th year running a team in the MotoGP paddock. The team will continue his legacy.
Gresini began competing in the 125cc World Championship in 1983 and took his debut win the following season. The year after that he took more wins and podiums on his way to taking the crown for the first time as he won the 1985 125cc World Championship.
Runner up in 1986, the Italian fought back to take 10 wins on his way to reclaiming the crown in 1987, cementing his place in Grand Prix history.
Gresini competed until 1994 and accrued 21 wins overall, becoming one of the most successful riders of his era in the 125cc class. After hanging up his leathers, he then found equal and impressive success as he began a career on the other side of the pit wall.
His journey as Team Manager began in 1997, and the Gresini team took a World Championship for the first time in 2001 with Japanese rider Daijiro Kato as the two dominated the 250cc class together. Further Championships came in 2010 in Moto2 with Toni Elias and 2018 in Moto3 with Jorge Martin, as well as 2019 as the team won the inaugural FIM Enel MotoE World Cup with Matteo Ferrari. The teams that bear his name compete across all three classes of the FIM MotoGP World Championship in 2021, from MotoGP to Moto3, as well as MotoE, and will race on in his honour.
Gresini’s memory will live on both in his achievements on track and his legacy as team founder and manager. MotoGP and Dorna Sports extend their deepest condolences to all those the legendary Italian leaves behind; his family, friends, colleagues, teams and more, at this most difficult time.
Carmelo Ezpeleta – CEO of Dorna Sports
“I’m deeply saddened by the loss of Fausto. He was a very good friend and I liked him a lot. I have been following the news on his condition closely and I was lucky enough to be able to speak to him even as he was in hospital. I am so very sorry to suffer a loss like this in the paddock and I want to send my deepest condolences to his family, friends and the members of his team.”
Gresini Racing
The debut of the Gresini Racing team in the 500cc class has the flavor of motorcycling of the past: the team is set up in less than two months and in the opening GP, aboard a very private Honda NSR500 V-twin machine, Alex Barros is fighting for the top positions before being forced to slow down due to technical problems.
Donington, British Grand Prix: in his eleventh Grand Prix start, Gresini Racing enters already in the Olympus of motorcycling. Alex Barros is third behind the factory Hondas of Doohan and Okada, collecting thus the first in a long series of podium finishes.
In 1999 the team debuted in the 250cc class with a factory Honda NSR for Loris Capirossi, former teammate of Fausto Gresini when he was racing in 125cc. Capirex claims the first victory of the team in the Malaysian Grand Prix, and finished the season in third place.
2001 is the perfect season of Daijiro Kato: riding his Honda the little Japanese star breaks all records in the 250cc class, winning 11 of the 16 Grand Prix races on the calendar, clinching Gresini Racing’s first World Title.
Gresini Racing team is back in the premier class with rising star Kato: from the Czech Republic GP, Honda gives the new, five-cylinder four-stroke RC211V jewel to the Japanese rider and Daijiro is immediately at the top, climbing the second step of the podium.
In the opening round of the season at Suzuka, the star of Daijiro Kato turns off forever: through a great difficulty time, the team and Sete Gibernau find the strength to continue to fight, dedicating him four wins and finishing the year second in the Championship.
Four wins, eight podium finishes and six pole positions: Gresini Racing confirms itself at the top of the MotoGP and Sete Gibernau, who stars in memorable battles with Valentino Rossi, is once again runner-up in the World Championship.
Sete Gibernau first, Colin Edwards second: in the 2004 Grand Prix of Qatar, the Gresini Racing team puts their two bikes in front of everyone, thus entering the restricted élite of teams that can boast a one-two in the premier class.
Another dream of Fausto Gresini comes true: to bring at the top of MotoGP an Italian rider. With two wins and seven podium finishes, Marco Melandri surprises everyone closing the season as runner-up in the World Championship.
In 2006 come four more victories in MotoGP, three with Marco Melandri and one with Toni Elias in a spectacular Portuguese GP at Estoril, won in a sprint finish on Valentino Rossi. Fausto Gresini’s team is therefore once again the best satellite team in a category which has become increasingly competitive.
2007 is not an easy season, but Marco Melandri, fifth at end of the year, is still protagonist of memorable races: on the strip of asphalt that winds around the famous “Corkscrew” at Laguna Seca, the Italian takes a sensational podium despite a sore ankle after a big crash in Qualifying.
San Carlo joins the team in 2008: a long partnership that will accompany the team in MotoGP for five years, until 2012. In 2009, Toni Elias and Alex De Angelis get two consecutive podiums, at Brno and Indianapolis, closing the season in seventh and eighth position in the standings, respectively.
Seven wins, four of which consecutive, give to the Gresini Racing team and Toni Elias the first World Title in Moto2, the new four-stroke intermediate class. An overwhelming supremacy for the Spanish, who is crowned champion with three races to go.
2011 is the season which consecrates Marco Simoncelli among the MotoGP top riders: a wonderful story started in Barcelona with a stunning pole position in Spaniards’ home race, continued with the two podium finishes at Brno and Phillip Island and unfortunately interrupted on that very sad 23 October in Sepang.
In the race after the terrible Malaysian GP, at Valencia, Michele Pirro gets a thrilling victory in Moto2. A very touching moment for the entire team, racing in the memory of SIC.
In the newly formed Moto3 category, Fausto Gresini recognizes the ideal ground for a project aimed at the promotion of young Italian talents. The commitment in the smaller displacement, which is added to those in the Moto2 and MotoGP classes, starts with a Honda entrusted to the young Niccolò Antonelli.
In the three seasons 2012, 2013 and 2014 Alvaro Bautista is one of the undisputed protagonists of the premier class, with 28 placements in the top six in total, including three podiums. The Gresini Racing team is also racing in the CRT class, then “Open”: in 2014 rookie Scott Redding is the best among the riders aboard the Honda RCV1000R machine.
After 18 years with Honda, the 2015 season marks the beginning of a new exciting chapter in the history of Gresini Racing: the Piaggio Group chooses the team manager by Fausto Gresini to return to MotoGP with his glorious brand Aprilia. A great reward for the work done since 1997.
By winning the Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini with Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing become the only team to have won at least one Grand Prix in all the three classes – Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP – in the new four-stroke MotoGP era. A real “grand slam” that no other team can boast.
