Italy on the hunt for new Supersport heroes: Zaccone shines in testing at Phillip Island

In recent years, Italian riders have always been major protagonists of the Supersport World Championship. Unforgettable are the successes of Locatelli, Baldassarri, Bulega, Montella, Manzi... But now the big names have moved up to Superbike—so who will fight for wins or podiums? In the Phillip Island tests Alessandro Zaccone looked to be in great form.

The rider from Romagna has previously competed in WorldSSP, but he had been out of the Superbike World Championship paddock for nearly 10 years. In the meantime, he shone in MotoE, being crowned 2025 World Champion.

Let’s take a step back. Alessandro Zaccone was born in Rimini in 1999 and, like all riders from Romagna, started out on mini-motos. After racing in MiniGP and the Italian CIV Moto3, in 2013 he made his international debut in the European Junior Cup. He later competed in the European Superstock 600 Championship. In 2016, he made a mark in the Supersport World Championship with third place in the World Supersport Challenge aboard the San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki. He repeated this result in 2017 with MV Agusta. Between 2018 and 2019, he raced in the CEV Moto2, consolidating his international experience. In 2020, he debuted in MotoE with the Gresini team, while in 2022 he competed in the Moto2 World Championship before returning to electric bikes. In 2025, he captured the MotoE world title with 3 wins to his name.

This year, he has joined the Althea team and immediately showed good potential, setting the seventh overall time at Phillip Island aboard the Panigale V2.

"These were two important days for us," Alessandro Zaccone tells Corsedimoto. "This winter we barely turned any laps due to the weather conditions, and this was the first real time I rode with this bike and these tires. We did quite well, we tested a lot of things and there’s still a lot more to try, and Australia is always a bit of a one-off race. But all in all, we came away with a good result!"