Luca Marini explains why he left Valentino Rossi’s team

Luca Marini explains why he left Valentino Rossi’s team

There has been an uproar over Luca Marini’s decision to leave the Ducati VR46 Mooney Racing team, the team of his older brother Valentino Rossi, to go and replace at Honda the Spaniard Marc Marquez, Rossi’s arch-rival, who has switched to Duati’s Gresini team. The 26-year-old from Tavullia himself tells Gazzetta dello Sport.

"When è emerged the’opportunityà to replace Marc Marquez, Vale è was the first person I called – tells Marini -. È was… interesting. We talked a lot about it, although è it was difficult, of course, to talk to him, because è his role è both as head of the managers and the team. He he was torn between a nice opportunity è to try to accomplish in every way, and knowing that we are a great team and it would be a shame to miss”. 

The decision è also came to get out of Valentino’s cone of shadow. "Exactly, this è a last step that was needed. è my project to grow as a MotoGP rider. Going to an official team was my dream and goal, for me è a very normal thing, being Valentino Rossi’s brother to me changes nothing”.

Luca Marini made his MotoGP debut in 2013 in Moto3 racing only one Grand Prix, the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano. In 2016 è he switched permanently to Moto2, where he had already raced the year before always in Misano, winning from 2018 to 2020 six races and finishing second in the 2020 world championship. Then, in 2021, the move to MotoGP and this year he achieved his (for now) best result by finishing second in the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin and finishing eighth in the final world championship standings.