WorldWCR: “Let’s take the fight to the Spanish women!” Roberta Ponziani fires up the Italian quartet
Road RacingMonday, 16 February 2026 at 19:05
Roberta Ponziani ready for the 2026 Women’s WorldWCR: ambitions and goals in the interview.
Fired up for the new season with a touch of desire for redemption. Roberta Ponziani, the veteran of the Italian quartet we’ll see in the 2026 Women’s World Championship (never before have there been so many “fearsome girls”), will once again line up in KLINT Forward colors with renewed determination. Last season didn’t go exactly as she wanted, but now a new chapter in WorldWCR is about to begin, kicking off in Portimao on the weekend of March 27-29. She’ll have a new teammate, rookie Paola Ramos, after a year alongside Maria Herrera, the 2025 champion, from whom she emphasizes she learned a lot.
This year you’ll also be in the Women’s World Championship, and with the same team
I’m very happy to continue with them. It’s the team that won the World Championship last year, so on paper the best!
Last year you were teammates with the eventual champion; this year a rookie is arriving
I met Paola a few days ago; she’s shy but very determined, focused on the goal. She’ll need to gain some experience—I hope she doesn’t win everything right away! [laughs] She did very well as a wild card, but those are particular situations: in that race, no one wanted to make mistakes, while she wanted to make a good impression. Doing a whole season is another matter, but we’ll see—maybe she’ll surprise us all.
How do you rate your 2025 season? Were you happy with yourself?
So-so… I had a decent first half of the season and then I made a lot of mistakes, which brought me down a bit. I wanted to prove I was strong even on tracks away from home, but in the end I only won at Cremona, which bothered me a bit. When you win at home it becomes “expected,” and on other circuits I didn’t manage it, so from there I got a bit demoralized. Now we start from scratch—turn the page.
Have you figured out why you made those mistakes? Is there something in particular?
At Donington I was disqualified for weight: I’d messed up qualifying, got angry, and went straight back to the garage—I didn’t even go through scrutineering. They made me start last, a bit over the top as a penalty, but that’s how it went. From there I had a technical problem, then other things didn’t go well… From that race I lost the thread a bit; I got myself back together around Magny-Cours. Let’s say more psychological mistakes than actual riding errors.
Did having Herrera in the same box weigh on you, or not?
Yes and no, in the sense that having such a teammate helped a lot too: she makes few mistakes, and if she makes a choice there’s a reason. But yes, having your teammate constantly ahead is a bit tough. It didn’t weigh on me that much, though—Maria has always been a bit of an idol for me: I watched her on TV, I knew she was strong. When she won her first World Championship, even though I was angry about how it went for me, I was happy for her!
What did you learn from Maria Herrera?
A bit of everything—she’s strong in every situation, on every track… She makes very, very few mistakes. I learned to be more concrete, to improve the areas where I struggle the most, like braking, where she’s super strong. I think I was helpful to her too—maybe sometimes I had a little more than she did. We pushed each other to do better.
This year we could say you’re the team’s reference point. How do you see it?
I don’t know, we’ll see [laughs]. Let’s say I already know all the tracks and Paola doesn’t, so I start with a few more reference points. She’s young and strong anyway—maybe I need to take a bit of her spark, which is something I’m missing.
You mentioned issues in 2025—how have you worked to solve them?
I tried to train more to arrive in better shape: if you’ve done everything right, then I think things come naturally. Lately I’ve been training in Spain and Portugal, then we’ll wait for the official tests in the week of the first race.
This year there will be four Italian girls on the grid—what do you think?
Not bad—I was starting to feel a bit lonely! I’ve got company this year [laughs]. They’ll definitely need to get some experience; Dal Zotto now has a little more with the wild cards she’s done. The problem will be the format, which is tougher than CIV or the European Championship: one free practice session and then qualifying—you have to be fast right away. I can’t say how they’ll do, but we need to start challenging the Spanish girls! It’s tough because they’re all strong, but let’s be more of a team.
Expectations for the new season?
I don’t want to create any for myself. The goal is always to win the World Championship anyway: I’ve won races, I know how to run at the front… We’ll see.
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