Год без Фаусто Грезини с живым наследием

This Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of the death of Fausto Grezzini. The former driver and historic owner of Gresini Racing couldn't resist the coronavirus infection and died on February 23, 2021, but a year later, his legacy prevails and is clear.

Acting as a driver from 1983 to 1994, Gresini made his name in the 125cc World Championship. See as a two-time champion - with a special focus on 1987 when he failed to win one of the races when he fell in the last race of the season.

After retiring in 1997, he founded Gresini Racing, which has competed in the motorcycle world championship ever since. The debut was ambitious, in 500cc (former top class) with Alex Barros and in partnership with Honda. The first title came in 2001 in 250cc with Daijiro Kato, and the following year he returned to MotoGP... where Grecini saw Sete Gibernau second in 2003, as did Marco Melandri in 2005.

The collaboration with Honda continued until 2015, when Grecini became the official team of Aprilia. Fausto Grezzini's ultimate ambition to see his team return to the fight for MotoGP success has not materialized and this year the Noale brand has launched its own factory team.

With the death of the founder and the departure of Aprilia, it would have been easy for the family to abandon the project, but that's not what happened. Fausto's legacy lives on, now led by widow Nadia Padovani with teams in MotoGP, Moto2 and the MoToE World Cup.

The mission of the Italian team, which now works in partnership with Ducati, is to make room for young talent. Proof of this is the selection of Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio for the new MotoGP season. If he starts this new era as Aprilia ended, Gresini Racing will surely make Fausto proud of a project that keeps his memory alive in the MotoGP paddock and gives room to promising Italians for the future of MotoGP.