OX LE Y INTERVIEW: LU CA MARIN I
Rossi’s younger brother on racing, family and the future.
Luca Marini has vivid memories of his childhood: sat at home watching his big brother winning races on television, or, even better, flying halfway around the world to witness big bro winning world championships.
When he was seven their mum Stefania Palma took him to Australia to watch Valentino Rossi win his most famous world championship: the 2004 Motogp title, his first with Yamaha. Rossi celebrated that success at Phillip Island carrying Marini on his shoulders. Quite an experience for a little kid.
Next season Rossi and Marini will both be on the Motogp grid. Like so many aspects of Rossi’s life it has a hint of the fairy-tale about it.
‘It is something unbelievable,’ says Marini. ‘I have many very nice memories from when I was a kid, watching the races on TV, going to the races as a fan of my brother. I spent many good moments with him,
always dreaming about becoming a Motogp rider. So, yes, next year will be unbelievable.’
Marini was born in August 1997, two weeks before Rossi won his first world title, that year’s 125cc crown. No surprise that he wanted to be a motorcycle racer from the moment he first saw big brother riding around in circles, pulling wheelies and wooing the world.
His father Massimo took him minimoto racing at the age of five, in the summer of 2002, when Rossi ruled the first four-stroke Motogp championship aboard Honda’s RC211V.
The fact that both were busy with their own careers made it difficult for them to spend much time together. Only when Rossi established his VR46 Riders Academy in 2013 did they really get to know each other – racing wheel to wheel at the VR46 ranch and generally hanging out. ‘As we’ve got older we’ve become closer,’ adds Marini. ‘Also because when I was younger the difference of age was the same but a child sees the world in a different way. Now I’m older our passions are closer, so we speak more about everything.’
Speaking to Marini is like speaking to Rossi. They are both highly intelligent, charming and fully engaged during interviews (unlike some who shall remain nameless).
‘Luca has a crystal-clear mind,’ says their mum, who didn’t want her second son following her first into the world of 200mph motorcycle racing, but never tried to stop it happening.
The maternal half-brothers also look quite similar – there’s a lot of their mother in their faces – but they are not the same.
‘We are not so different in personality, but Vale is more extrovert, I’m quite shy. I’m more like ice, he’s more like fire. When I win a race I am very, very happy, the feeling inside is amazing, but I don’t give that message to people the way my brother does.’
This might have something to do with his father. Rossi’s dad was Graziano Rossi, a wild 1970s grand prix winner who looked more like a hippy than a motorcycle racer. Graziano wore white leathers striped with red and green zigzags, for the Italian tricolour, and one of his helmet designs featured a painting of two gnomes fishing in a pond. Marini’s father is Massimo Marini, an Italian psychologist.
‘My father loves motorcycles but he never raced,’ says Marini. ‘He is very close to me and it’s useful that he’s a psychologist – he gives me books that teach me a lot of things.’
Marini is so icy cool on and off the racetrack that his fellow VR46
‘When we are at Motogp races we spend a lot of time with Vale. Weaskhim for advice’
academicians gave him a nickname, a Russian nickname: ‘Marinovich’. And the academy – which won its first world championships with Franco Morbidelli and Pecco Bagnaia in 2017 and 2018 – has played a huge part in Marini’s upbringing.
‘I’m very happy to be a part of this incredible thing that VR46 is doing, because it’s not just Vale, there are a lot of great people at VR46 that help us to follow our dreams.
‘One of the best things about the ranch is that after every race we sit together and we joke and we play around. We speak about the motorcycle world but we also speak about other things and spend many funny moments together. This helps us improve as riders and as people. ‘Also when we are at Motogp races we spend a lot of time with Vale. Every evening we go to his motorhome and we all ask him for technical advice about riding and the track. He gives us a lot of attention and always gives us good things to think about. If I have a problem at one corner I message him between practice sessions and he messages me back, telling me what to do. When we are in his motorhome we don’t always talk about the motorcycle world but staying together helps us. ‘Valentino has also taught me so many things about life. Racing is a very special life because it’s not only about bikes and tracks. He gives me advice on the whole environment of racing, the whole life. Also at home
I try to learn from him by watching him. This makes me improve and grow in every aspect. I’m happy to spend time with him.’
Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to being a close relative of someone super-famous and super-successful. Marini obviously has Rossi on his side, but what about the pressure of trying to follow in the wheel tracks of arguably the greatest motorcycle racer of all time?
‘Especially at the beginning when I was racing pocket-bikes and Minigp I didn’t feel the pressure,’ he says. ‘I just tried to find and follow my own way. My father helped me a lot. My brother came to give me a hand later, when I raced Moto3 in the Italian championship and then Moto2 in the European championship. But I never felt pressure – maybe it’s my personality. For me it’s not a problem being his brother, I can manage it very well. I’m just proud of him, he’s my mentor and I think every young rider would want to be in my place.’
Marini had his first major success in 2011, when he was 14. He dominated the Italian
80cc Minigp championship aboard an
Italian-made RMU, taking six pole positions and six victories from six events. The following year he graduated to the Italian
Moto3 championship and in 2013 made his grand prix debut as a wild card at the San
Marino GP.
He qualified 29th fastest, alongside future World Supersport 300 champion Ana
Carrasco, and crashed out at the first corner.
I asked Marini how that felt, expecting him to describe the remorse he felt as he limped back to his garage after completing 200 metres of the race.
But, no, he’s not like that. Instead I got a cold-blooded Marinovich analysis of the situation.
‘It was a mistake to do that race because my team wasn’t prepared to make that step into grands prix. My bike was an Italian championship bike and the step in machinery from the Italian championship to the world championship is bigger than you’d ever believe.
‘But I learned a lot from that moment and I grew up a lot. Maybe if something different had happened in that moment I wouldn’t be who I am now. I want to learn from my mistakes and try not to repeat them. I think I have improved a lot since then.’
Definitely the psychologist’s son.
In 2014 Marini contested the Spanish-based CEV Moto3 series, riding for the team owned by four-times world champion Jorge Martinez. (Coincidentally, Rossi nearly began his GP career in 1996 with Martinez’s team.) Only one problem, Marini was growing fast and quickly outgrew his Moto3 bike, so in 2015 he moved into the CEV Moto2 championship. The next spring he became a full-time Moto2 world championship rider, with Swiss-based Forward Racing.
Two years later he joined Rossi’s Sky VR46 Moto2 team and took his first grand prix victory. Last season he won two more races, marking himself down as a title favourite for 2020.
He didn’t disappoint. He led the first race in Qatar, won the second race at Jerez and strengthened his grip on the championship with two more victories, at Misano and Barcelona.
‘There are many important things that helped me make the step this year. First of all I started this season at 100 percent physical strength – I didn’t have any injuries or surgeries like I did last year – so I was ready for preseason testing, which was important to start the season in a good way. Another very important thing is that the 2020 bike was easier to ride, because Dunlop brought a bigger front tyre, so now the bike is more balanced. Last year it was strange because Dunlop brought a big rear tyre, so the bike didn’t feel properly balanced. Also, I changed my crew chief and data analyst who do a great job with new working methods.’ Things were looking good. And then came the French GP at a cold and wet Le Mans. There were one hundred crashes that weekend and Marini was one of them. In treacherous conditions he hit a damp patch halfway through a 100mph corner and suffered a vicious highside – the kind of crash that 500cc GP riders remember in their still-aching bones – that knocked him for six.
He struggled at the next few races, losing the championship lead when he crashed out at Aragon, where Sam Lowes came on strong. Even then Marini’s coolness remained undisturbed. Most riders in that dreaded situation – watching their world championship hopes disappear in a cloud of dust and shattered motorcycle parts – would’ve thrown a massive strop in the gravel trap. But not Marinovich. The 23-year-old calmly got to his feet and walked away, looking up at the heavens, perhaps hoping for some kind of divine intervention.
‘Then came the French GP… There were one hundred crashes that weekend and Marini was one of them’
It didn’t come. Marini lost the championship despite being the fastest rider for the first two-thirds of the series. That’s motorcycle racing – it can be a cruel mistress.
And yet there’s little doubt that he has the talent for Motogp. His brother, no surprise, is a big fan.
‘Luca is like a machine – he never makes any mistakes!’ said Rossi after Marini’s Barcelona victory, ten days before his Le Mans downfall. ‘When you see the slow-motion replay, so you can see him up close, his style is perfect.’
Marini and his toughest Moto2 title rivals – world champion Enea Bastianini and third place Sam Lowes – all rode Kalex bikes in 2020, all of them using different riding techniques.
‘I’m more in the precision way,’ says Marini. ‘My riding style is less aggressive because a smooth style works better for me. I try to be very precise – braking at the same point every lap, focusing on using the same lines, opening the gas in the same way to control the rear tyre to save the tyre for the end of the race.
‘But in Moto2 you can also be aggressive on the bike. For example,
Sam is very aggressive and he does amazing lap times. So you can be fast in the way you feel more comfortable and at the end the lap time is nearly the same.’
Next season Marini will ride a Ducati Desmosedici for the Spanish Esponsarama Motogp team, alongside Bastianini. The big Duke isn’t the easiest machine to master, but it’s easier to tame than it was back in 2011 and 2012, when Rossi had his disastrous two seasons with the Italian factory.
Marini is several centimetres taller than his brother – who is borderline too tall for modern-day Motogp – but hopes that won’t be a problem in the big class.
‘For sure my size was a negative in Moto3 and sometimes I feel a bit too tall for Moto2, so I hope Motogp will be a bit better fit for me. I think there will be positives and negatives. If you are taller you can use your body more to turn the bike and to put more temperature in the tyres, but you are less comfortable on the bike and you have less speed on the straights.’
Marini’s move into the Esponsarama team could be the prelude to Rossi’s retirement from Motogp. In 2022 it’s expected that VR46 will take over the grid places currently owned by the Esponsarama outfit, which has always struggled to find proper financial backing. If Rossi does hang up his leathers at the end of next season he will move into team ownership, like former Motogp legends ‘King’ Kenny Roberts, Giacamo Agostini and Geoff Duke.
‘Marini lost the championship despite being the fastest rider… racing can be cruel’