Capirossi, Rossi, the Hiatus and the Comeback: Team Pileri Rekindles Its Legend

A world-class team is returning to the top tier of the national racing scene—and not only because it was founded by world champion Paolo Pileri.

The Team Pileri Terni enjoyed years of glory with two-time 125cc world champion Loris Capirossi and runner-up Fausto Gresini, while other big names included Alex Barros. It was also with this team that a then 14-year-old Valentino Rossi got his first opportunity to try a Grand Prix bike. Once the team left the World Championship, everything came to a halt until around 2020, when activities resumed with a focus on nurturing young riders. That path will continue with the team’s entry into the Moto4 class of the Italian Speed Championship CIV in 2027 (there had also been talk of Moto3, a category that now appears close to being scrapped). A piece of history is therefore coming back into the spotlight—let’s revisit its highlights.

We are in Terni, a city captivated by motorsport and fueled by its enduring enthusiasm for the exploits of Libero Liberati. It is 1986, and Paolo Pileri, the 125cc world champion with Morbidelli in 1975, has by then hung up his helmet and, together with his brother Francesco, founds the team that bears his name. From 1987, the team competes in the World Championship, first with MBA-LCR machinery, then Garelli, and from 1989 with Honda. It is with the Golden Wing that world championship glory arrives: Loris Capirossi, who joined in 1990 as Fausto Gresini’s “second rider,” becomes world champion at 17 years and 165 days—the youngest-ever record, still unbeaten. The title goes down in the history books thanks to the “escort” provided by other Italian riders, who cleanly but firmly kept the formidable Dutchman Hans Spaan at bay. In 1991, he successfully defends his 125cc title with Team Pileri, then known as Pileri-AGV. In 1992, under the Marlboro-Pileri name, the dream of a hat-trick comes within touching distance, as Fausto Gresini finishes the season as world championship runner-up. In the following years, the 500cc challenge with Honda, first alongside Capirossi and then Alex Barros, saw both riders finish just outside the world championship podium, while claiming podium results in several Grands Prix.

The future multiple champion from Tavullia was only a 14-year-old boy in 1993, dreaming of reaching the World Championship in the footsteps of his father Graziano. It is 1993, and we are at Misano Adriatico, at what was then the Santamonica International Circuit before its name was changed. The very young Valentino Rossi climbs aboard the Team Pileri Honda RS 125 R: it is his first contact with a Grand Prix motorcycle. Meanwhile, the team’s World Championship commitment continues until its departure in 1997, the year that marks the end of Team Pileri’s presence in racing. The years go by... But we have to wait well beyond the start of the new millennium: in 2020, things begin moving again, and in 2021-2022 the first track activities resume. Under the guidance of Francesco Pileri, the team restarts with a project devoted to young two-wheeled talents, competing in various feeder championships under Dorna’s umbrella, such as the Mir Racing Aspar Cup. In 2026, it also organized the Team Pileri Cup, a championship and selection series designed to identify talents to train and launch at national and European level.

A major comeback after the mid-1990s, the last time the team competed in this championship. But the aforementioned Team Pileri project to develop young two-wheeled talents could not overlook the CIV. In 2027, the Terni-based outfit will therefore return to Italy’s premier racing series, certainly in the Moto4 class with Tommaso Bertolini, winner of the Team Pileri Cup, and Marco Macciaroni, who finished second in the competition. A possible Moto3 project with Maurizio Riso, third in the Pileri Cup, is also being considered, but there is considerable uncertainty surrounding a category long regarded as ailing and which could be definitively removed from the CIV. More details may emerge next weekend at the season-ending round in Vallelunga. Two riders, however, are definitely confirmed for 2027—a historic return now being prepared with the first tests in Spain at the beginning of the year, before the serious racing gets underway. The season starts at the end of April in Misano, followed by Mugello, Cremona, Misano again for the Racing Night, Imola, and Vallelunga. A piece of history is being reborn for an intriguing challenge that will be well worth following.

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