Paolo Simoncelli spoke to speedweek about his team, his drivers and his plans for the future.
The 23 October 2011, Paolo Simoncelli lost his son, Marco, during the Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix. He very quickly made the decision to get back in the saddle in his own way so as not to sink and, after creating the Marco Simoncelli Foundation the following year, in 2012, he successfully completed the project of a team allowing both to honor the memory of his son, and at the same time to help young talents.
This is how in 2013, a year and a half after Marco's tragic accident, SIC 58 Squadra Corse was born. From a small structure in CIV, it developed to reach the Moto3 World Championship in just four years, as Paolo Simoncelli explained: “I started small, limiting myself to the Italian championship, then I moved to the Spanish championship. I only arrived at the World Cup in 2017.”
There is not a place, between the box, the truck and the hospital, where Marco's image is not present. If one might think that it would pain Paolo to constantly see his son disappear, he does not see it that way: " No why ? It was me who wanted it. If it bothered me, I wouldn't have done it. »
In 2019, Simoncelli decided to once again place his trust in Niccolò Antonelli and Tatsuki Suzuki who both had a somewhat complicated 2018 season. They thus finished in fourteenth and fifteenth place in the championship with exactly the same number of points, i.e. 71.
Despite a good start with a pole position and a fourth place in the race in Qatar, Antonelli did not confirm the rest of the year: “He causes his own problems. With him, it's all in the head. I can provide them with the infrastructure, machines to win with, but then it's up to them. »
On the side of Suzuki, the problem seems to be somewhat the same. With also a fourth place for best result, he is still missing a little something: “He has progressed a lot. Two years ago no one knew him and you didn't even know he was there! Now we see him more up front but when he is a little more sure of himself. »
Simoncelli hopes to turn the tide in 2019 with his Moto3 team, but also to establish himself at the forefront in MotoE with Mattia Casadei. However, he does not wish don't stop there : “I want to get to MotoGP one day. I would also like to move up to Moto2 and I think it will happen soon, I hope it won't take five years. »
