An experienced trio backing women’s talent: Sommariva Corse powered by Agorace launches

Friday, 06 March 2026 at 15:00

The story of Sommariva Corse powered by Agorace, a new team ready to make its mark between the WEC and the Italian Women’s Championship (CIV Femminile) in 2026.

A new venture born from the idea of a resting rider (last year in Moto2 JuniorGP), an active rider, and a highly experienced technician. In order: Lorenzo Sommariva, his girlfriend Matilde Contri, and Marco Agostini, the founders of Sommariva Corse powered by Agorace, a new team competing between the European Championship and CIV Femminile in 2026, this year with the Yamaha R7 in line with the World Championship. The 26-year-old from Pistoia is therefore setting aside his riding commitments to move “behind the scenes” in this new challenge, together with Contri who will be both manager and rider of the new structure. The extensive world-level experience of the aforementioned Agostini will not be lacking: he will prepare the bikes technically and take care of their development throughout the season.

In addition to him, among others, there’s also Guglielmo Pieretto as technical manager to coordinate the work with the mechanics. On track, Contri (CIV Femminile and WEC) is not the only rider fielded for 2026: alongside her is Beatrice Barbera, coming off her only year in the Women’s World Championship, lining up in both CIV and WEC, and the experienced Malaysian Saidatul Zakirah Zairin (Women’s European Championship WEC). They’re also working on the possibility of entering a fourth rider, but everything is still to be defined and for now they’ll rely on the three already confirmed. The first real on-track test will take place on April 4-5 at Vallelunga; in the meantime, we spoke with Sommariva to have him explain all the news.

A new challenge—tell us about it.

It’s an idea that started back in July, when I stopped. In my early racing years, my technician was always Marco Agostini; I always trusted only him because he has vast experience: he spent many years in the World Championship, he knows a lot. I explained this project to him to bring up some girls to race in the European Championship and the CIV Femminile. I was clear: I’d start the team only if he was the technical manager, and he agreed to get going with me. I’ve realized it’s much more complicated than it seems [laughs]. But we started in August, and now we’re here with this project.

A project shared with your girlfriend as well.

For now she’s a rider, but she’s also one of the team managers. In the end, the initial idea came from the three of us; she’ll help me manage all the bureaucracy, but I told her she needs to focus above all on racing!

But where did this idea come from?

Motorbikes are my passion; I’ve always liked the team side of things, organizing… I’m a very critical person, and even as a rider I always watched the team’s work, analyzed the work methods, what they did well or badly. So I wanted to give it a try. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I’m convinced it’ll go well: I’ll try to give the riders the best possible situation to grow and show their worth. If you don’t have a team that puts you in the best position to express yourself, it becomes difficult—you can’t take to the track with the right conviction and the result doesn’t come.

Who are the team’s riders?

As of now we have Beatrice Barbera, then the Malaysian rider Saidatul Zakirah Zairin, and Matilde. We’re also working on a fourth rider, but it’s not decided yet; we’ll see. I’ll also be a coach; between races they’ll come train on track with me.

How do you see this lineup?

I’m happy about Beatrice; she’s done the World Championship and also already has a year of experience with the R7. Zakirah has solid experience in the European Championship and knows the tracks well, which is a point in her favor; then we can work together on a growth plan. And there’s Matilde, who so far has only raced with her dad: she’s a strong rider and I think she can do really well if placed in the right environment. I’m curious to see the progress she can make.

A season full of unknowns, but exciting.

For me it’ll be a new role, but the environment is still the same—I know it. Plus, there are people within the team with tons of experience and I’ll be able to rely on them. And as for the riders, we’re not talking about rookies; they’ve been riding for many years. I’m very calm; I have a lot of confidence in everyone. Then, who knows, during the season I might be more worried than when I was the one on track! [laughs]

What are the first objectives?

The first thing will be to see progress. The level will be very high, but I can’t gauge the pecking order on track, between the new bike, new people… The one certainty is to start from a baseline and reach the end of the year with substantial growth compared to the first race.

Personal aside: you had shoulder surgery in July 2025—how are you now?

I’m fine; everything went well and I’m regaining muscle tone. Mobility has already improved. I had a humeral dislocation, but due to a previous injury, if it popped out it wouldn’t go back in place anymore—they had to knock me out and do various procedures… At the moment I still can’t get back on a bike; they’ve forbidden it, but maybe by mid-March I can start again—we’ll see. Since I’m not racing, I can take it easy.

No riding commitments this year—can you explain further?

Last year I did the first races of the Moto2 European Championship, then an agent had promised to find sponsors for us to continue the season, but it didn’t work out. If you don’t have someone to help you… I also thought about the fact that I’m 26, so talking with my dad I said to myself that we’ve put in a lot of effort and made many sacrifices, but now it seems tough to make this sport my job. So I said enough.

So is it an official retirement or a temporary one? How are you handling it?

Lately I sometimes feel a bit of a void; it’s the first year I’m not racing and I’ll be honest, I’m sad. On the other hand, it’s a reality I had to face sooner or later, so it’s fine. Is it a retirement… I couldn’t say; in the sense that if tomorrow I get a call saying ‘I’ll put you on a bike,’ I’ll go right away! As of now, I haven’t signed with anyone for 2026; unless a call comes, I definitely won’t be racing.

But did anyone reach out to you?

I’d received a few calls to do CIV Superbike and CIV Sportbike with the R7, but they were options that still required me to pay, so we said no. I’m 26; I started racing at 16, so already late, and I always told my parents I wanted to make motorcycles my profession—my goal was the World Championship. Racing in the Italian series for life… Not because the level is low, mind you, but I had a different vision, so now I can’t find the right motivation anymore. That’s how it went.