Marco Bezzecchi’s incredible surge

Sometimes they scold me. They tell me that sometimes I say too much bullshit”. So to Marco Bezzecchi they joined the guard dog, Pol, the pr, who growls every time the conversation ends on the World Championship, on ambitions, on the official bikes, on the future.

But Bez, can you win the World Cup? “I don’t want to get too overwhelmed. I want to see what happens next.” How are you living in the moment? “Very well, everything is working fine. The races and everything. But I can’t say more now.” And the fact that you are the market man? “I have amazing people around me who work for me. Everyone takes care of the things they have to. I can’t say more.”

It was difficult to rein in Bez, the contemporary symbol of a Mooney VR46 Racing that flies and that is gaining all the professionalism and dreams it deserves and has always cultivated in MotoGP. They succeeded. Or maybe it’s just because Marco, 24 years old from Rimini, has grown up. Demonstration of greatness also expected at Silverstone, Great Britain, the next GP on the agenda. “I’ve grown up, I see myself differently than a few years ago. In part, at least. But don’t think about it too much. In the end it’s always me, I’ve always been myself and I want to continue to be. I’ve matured in many things and I’m working on others. The people who have been by my side have taught me the right things.”

Entering the world of Bez is like opening a door to Fellini’s universe. And lo and behold, the zones are the same. A colorful and gassing world, as defined by Uccio, the manager of Mooney VR46. A few years ago Bez frequented Bar Angelo, one of those places that can’t be told. With the characters that you can find there and only there: “Morandi, who was Matteotti’s mechanic and always has certain pearls that when he starts to tell them we’d leave at one in the morning. Franci lends a hand to the people at the bar but he was a flag-waver at Misano and says he knows a lot about motorcycles. And of course Robi, who owns the bar. The calmest man on earth. But if he takes the chair, oh, he puts everyone’s heads down. We Romagna are like this, we are strange people. We love each other”. Those were the years of Moto3, because if you’re a rider the spotlights only show you sideways.

Bezzecchi, the one who today is fighting side by side with Bagnaia for the title in the premier class, had to slow down a bit. “I go less to Bar Angelo, even if I still go there a few times. There are still old friends. Friends remained the same as in kindergarten, in elementary school. The real and narrow ones are not many. With my career a few things have changed, friends are forced to do things that maybe they don’t want to, not to go to places where there is too much chaos. But that doesn’t bother anyone.” The good is always the same. Yet those who watch him climb onto the podiums of the world (successes in Argentina and Le Mans) are learning to transform him into an icon, character, symbol. Marco hastens to say “no, I feel myself one hundred percent. Those around me always keep my feet on the ground and don’t consider me as a rider”.

Sport, with the show business, it’s like the rabbit hole: it catches you, but it risks leading you astray, and then goodbye dreams of glory. For this friendship is for Bez a medicine, a decisive factor, which always envelops everything. “For me it is fundamental. Friendship is a true feeling, which is the basis of human relationships. And it is also the basis of my work, of what I do every day. The luck is that I didn’t have to make an effort to look for it: this team is also made up of friends”. Starting with that Bagnaia, the adversary on the Ducati saddle, the bitter enemy only when the revs of the mutòr rise, as they say in Romagna. “Pecco and I are friends, yes. He has more experience than me, he’s been in MotoGP for a few more years. He is very strong, it is no coincidence that he is the world champion. Yes, we date, and we talk. In what he is stronger than me I just don’t know, he is strong in everything. I, on the other hand, have to grow, do more, improve certain aspects of riding. Certainly the passion for shoes attacked me”. Marco was once obsessed with horoscopes. He, Scorpio. Capricious and self-confident: Curls don’t lie. Once, in 2018, he said: “My sister Silvia attacked me. I read the weekly one by Paolo Fox. But it happens that you also peek at the daily one”. Today, 2023: “No, I don’t watch it anymore”. He has just got his licence: until a few days ago he couldn’t ride a motorbike on the road. The Pesaro motor vehicle officer who examined him said that Bez was cautious. And for someone who gives gas in MotoGP it is unbelievable.

Ah, how it changes. Now there are Jordans to fill Marco’s extra track (and of course the closets) as a boy. It is the obsession of the moment, the most precious hobby. “I really like shoes in general. What am I doing? I buy them and put them on, what should I do? I have many, many. From Jordans to sneakers of all kinds, Vans, All-stars, Filas, Nikes. I’ll have about fifty in all.” A little rock (“My sister plays the guitar, but I don’t, zero”), a little vintage, the Bez outside the paddock has an overlived, overwhelmed, bewildered air. It’s his beautiful day. Full of the affections of always. Mother Daniela and sisters Silvia (who studied film make-up in Birmingham) and Laura. The cousin Emiliano who once took care of the site. Dad Vito, a gentleman in Romagna sauce. “He and I have a very special relationship – he has always said – we talk about everything, even if the bikes always end up in the middle of our conversations”. Yep, motorcycles. To drive but also to “split”, as he says. Voice of the verb: modify, arrange, mechanize. “I worked in the workshop and mechanics is a passion I cultivate, which I have had for a long time. From the first mopeds, the ones that my friends and I have always cracked. We did a lot of stuff, made up cross mopeds, cross vespas, bees. Knowing how motor vehicles work is nice, you can make one thing clear to whoever has to fix it for you. Motorcycles are my passion. I like to stand there and watch when they get their hands on them, when they take them apart”. We all have a magnet, something that attracts us and from which we no longer detach ourselves. The bikes are that of the Bez. “The biggest shit I’ve done in my life? Dunno, definitely a chapel in motion. Going there is always the thing that makes me the most joy. Obviously winning is a unique thing, which is not repeated with anything. It’s beautiful. But happiness, you can achieve that with other things. I find it in motion”.