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Fausto Gresini

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Episode 187 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one dives back into the team launches for the MotoGP Championship, as we look at Repsol Honda’s team debut for the season.

To handle that topic, we have Neil Morrison, Steve English, David Emmett, and Adam Wheeler on the mics, and before they weigh-in on Repsol Honda’s bold new graphics, they each give a moment and some thoughts about Fausto Gresini, who recently passed away after battling COVID-19.

His absence in the grand prix paddock will surely be felt, and he will be missed. If you would like to get a fuller picture of the man, there is also this obituary by Mat Oxley on Motor Sport Magazine.

Fausto Gresini, double world champion and long-standing Grand Prix team manager, died this morning as a result of complications arising from a COVID-19 infection.

The 60-year-old Italian was being treated for COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of the Carlo Alberto Pizzardi hospital in Bologna, Italy.

Gresini had been diagnosed with COVID-19 shortly before Christmas 2020. His condition worsened sufficiently for him to be admitted to hospital shortly after Christmas.

From there, his condition grew worse, occasionally showing only minor improvements, but the disease caused severe damage to his lungs, meaning he required help breathing for long periods of time.

The toll from the disease mounted up, Gresini eventually succumbing to the complications arising from COVID-19.

The first step toward the 2022 MotoGP grid has taken place. With a new five-year contract period between Dorna, the manufacturers, and IRTA as representative of the teams starting in 2022, grid slots are open for application once again.

Gresini Racing, led by Fausto Gresini, is to separate from Aprilia and become an independent team once again, they announced in a press release.

As the world of motorcycle racing starts to get into the swing of things, activity is starting to ramp up.

The first of the MotoGP factory launches is due this week, Ducati to present their 2020 livery and (unchanged) rider line up in a 13th Century palace in the middle of Bologna.

That event happens on Thursday evening, January 23rd, and I will be attending to try to find out more about Ducati’s plans for the coming season.

The other factories will have to wait. The three Japanese factories will be launching their bikes just ahead of the Sepang test.

It has been a long, hard weekend of negotiating in the paddock at Silverstone for a number of team managers. Especially for everyone involved in the situation revolving around the Go&Fun Gresini team, and the rider they have a contract with for 2015, Scott Redding.

Meetings have been held with factories, team managers, riders and sponsors, in a bid to get everything back on track for next year. At the core of the problem lies the impending loss of title sponsor Go&Fun by Gresini. Without the money the Italian energy drink firm brings in, Gresini can no longer afford the factory option Honda RC213V it leases from HRC.

Without an RC213V, Redding will not ride for Gresini. And without bikes from Honda, Gresini will have to find another way of surviving in MotoGP. Silverstone was the deadline HRC had given Fausto Gresini to tell them whether he would be racing with Honda next year. If Gresini could not afford the RC213V, this would give Honda the time to find an alternative slot for the bike.

Under normal circumstances, Scott Redding would already know exactly where he will be racing in 2015. He has a contract with HRC and Gresini to race with the Go&Fun Gresini team, which puts him aboard the factory option Honda RC213V next year, replacing Alvaro Bautista.

Up until a few races ago, the only question mark was whether Redding would continue to run Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, which come as part of a lucrative sponsorship deal for Gresini, or whether the team would switch to Ohlins and Brembo, like the factory Honda team.

In the past couple of weeks, that situation appears to have changed. Ahead of the Brno round of MotoGP, rumors emerged that Gresini was struggling to raise the funds for 2015.

Press interviews that are done internally by the teams themselves are usually very one-sided, glowing, and devoid of any controversial or tough questions, so you have to give a hat-tip to HRC for producing a pretty fair shake of an interview with Gresini Honda‘s Fausto Gresini. The former-racer turned MotoGP Team Manager is heralded as the most successful team owner in the history of MotoGP, which is certainly open for debate, though Gresini undeniably has some very note-worthy notches on his belt.

Along with his successes Gresini and his squad unfortunately have also had their fair share of tragedy. Losing Daijiro Kato at Suzuka in 2003 and Marco Simoncelli at Sepang in 2011, the team has been at the center of two dark chapters of the MotoGP story. Running a black livery in 2012, instead of the team’s customary white color scheme, the absence of Simoncelli still percolates underneath the demure exterior of the team, though the Gresini Honda team is clearly looking forward instead of back.

Taking on the challenge of running a CRT entry for the 2012 MotoGP Championship, Gresini Honda will race with both a factory prototype and with a Ten Kate-prepped Honda CBR1000RR motor in an FTR chassis. At the helm of the CRT machine will be Michele Pirro, the same rider who gave Gresini a dramatic finish to the 2011 season, by winning the final Moto2 round at the Valencian GP. Also new to the team is Alvaro Bautista, who has been our dark horse favorite here at A&R. Fast, but underrated, Bautista’s true potential will be measured this year as he joins an all-star team, and rides “the bike” of the GP paddock: the 2012 Honda RC213V.

It’s been nearly two months since the passing of Marco Simoncelli, and the loss of the popular Italian motorcycle racer is still ever-present in the minds of MotoGP fans. Nothing proves this point better than a moment at our premiere of Fastest in San Francisco last week, where a collective “Marco!” could be heard as SuperSic’s face filled the big screen of the theater. The holidays surely must be tough for Marco’s family, so perhaps it is appropriate that Ciao Sic, an official coffee table tribute book to Marco Simoncelli, has been released in time for the holidays.

Michele Pirro finished his 2011 Moto2 season on a high note, winning the final round at Valencia for the Gresini Racing team. Coming on the heels of MotoGP’s final tribute to Marco Simoncelli, the victory was an especially emotional one for the young Italian rider and his team. Finishing seventh in the Moto2 Championship standings, Pirro’s hard work has earned him a promotion into MotoGP, where the rookie rider will campaign a CRT bike with the San Carlo Honda Gresini team.

Gresini has confirmed that the team will use an FTR chassis, which will be custom-built to use a Honda CBR1000RR motor. This brings the total number of confirmed CRT entries up to five, with several more CRT entries still expected to commit to the 2012 MotoGP Championship. This news means we should see at least 20 bikes on the grid for the MotoGP opener at Qatar, though the question remains: how competitive will they be?

Finally putting an end to the speculation, Team San Carlo Honda Gresini has confirmed that the satellite Honda MotoGP team will field a claiming rule team (CRT) entry for the 2012 season. Using a Honda CBR1000RR motor with a custom chassis built by FTR Moto (the same firm linked to Ducati’s twin-spar aluminum frame), Gresini becomes the latest MotoGP to jump on the growing CRT bandwagon.

The move means San Carlo Honda Gresini will field a hybrid garage for next season, with Álvaro Bautista on satellite-spec Honda RC213V bike, and a yet unnamed rider on the CRT racing machine. With a high-profile satellite team like Gresini adding a CRT bike to its format, the news adds yet more validation to the CRT movement.

While it is still not clear whether the San Carlo Honda Gresini team will race with Hiroshi Aoyama in the upcoming Valencian GP, the Gresini Racing team has confirmed it will at least travel to the final MotoGP round. The Gresini Racing team has confirmed that many members of the San Carlo Honda Gresini MotoGP team will be present at the spanish track, and that the customary team pit box will be setup with Marco Simoncelli’s #58 Honda RC212V on display to tribute the fallen rider.