CIV Moto3: Politecnico di Milano’s big bet with Mirko Gennai and the 'Tosa'

Tuesday, 21 April 2026 at 19:42

PoliMi Motorcycle Factory ready for its first season in the CIV Moto3 with Mirko Gennai and the “Tosa.” The interview with Andrea Danese, head of the racing department at the Politecnico di Milano.

From an “unrealistic idea” to the official debut. The PoliMi Motorcycle Factory is on the verge of its first full season in Moto3 of the Italian Speed Championship (CIV) with a prototype built from scratch within the Lombardy-based university. We have already told you the story and how this step forward came about: last year’s absolute debut as a wild card with Cesare Tiezzi, and this year there will be Mirko Gennai, who is also competing in the World Sportbike Championship, riding the “Tosa” (the bike) for the entire 2026 season. We spoke about it with Andrea Danese, responsible for managing the Politecnico’s racing department.

Introduce the 2026 project to us.

We are officially in the CIV, and we will run the first full season. Clearly it’s a demanding and ambitious challenge: for us at the university, historically used to doing only one race every two years, it’s a very important step, but it’s the natural evolution from last season’s wild cards. We’re taking on this challenge with a new rider, Mirko Gennai, whom I didn’t know personally but about whom I’ve always heard great things as a person, and that’s important for this project and for having a good team atmosphere. This comes after Cesare Tiezzi chose to return to racing in Italy to do Supersport: we talked about it and we were sorry, but tackling a double challenge on the same weekend didn’t make sense.

How did the deal come about?

At the end of December/beginning of January I got back in touch, since he had worked with some former PMF members during the 300 years, and we spoke: he was immediately enthusiastic about this new challenge—we’re talking about developing a prototype, not a bike derived from another manufacturer. He will also have to act as a developer and test rider in a crucial year. We then met in January/February at the Politecnico, I introduced him to some of the students who will work with him, and he was impressed by the bike: he has never ridden a Moto3, not even a standard one. We did the first tests in Cremona, a sort of shakedown, and then the official tests at Misano with everyone else, about seventy laps in total.

Mirko Gennai and the PoliMi Motorcycle Factory team in Cremona

Mirko Gennai and the PoliMi Motorcycle Factory crew in Cremona

Mirko Gennai is a surprise in Moto3!

Others told me the same thing [laughs]. But Mirko has a lot of experience, he has done many races, much battling, he knows the circuits, and that matters a lot for feel on the bike, because he knows when to take risks and when not to, and how to give the right feedback. In the Misano tests, there was a nice improvement in lap time between the first and the last session, and that’s not thanks to only us or only him—we’re growing together. He has a very mature attitude that reassures both me and the whole team.

Lots of new things for everyone.

The bike right now is the same one Cesare rode, with very few updates, and we’ll start with this; then the new bike will arrive roughly halfway through the championship. We will use the first races to gain experience—Mirko with the category and us to develop the potential of our first Moto3—so that we’re ready to transfer what we’ve learned to the new bike. Mirko’s contribution will be crucial to give us all the necessary feedback. For us, this is a learning season against teams and riders who have experience. We need to take our time without overdoing it, one step after another, and we’ll see how it goes.

You’re entering Moto3 in a particular period…

Unfortunately yes, and it’s a pity, since it’s the only prototype category in the CIV. No longer having such a category in a professional championship would be something of a defeat. I lived through the years when PreMoto3 and Moto3 were really great… We would have liked to take part earlier, but for a thousand reasons it would have been rushed. I hope the Federation and the teams make an effort to keep the category from closing, maybe with some wild cards to increase the number of participants. Finishing 9th out of 10 is not interesting for anyone, not even for sponsors. At the moment we don’t have the resources to field more bikes, nor are we interested: ours is more of a laboratory on track, we want to understand how and where to improve.

Have you ever considered betting on a “little” youngster as a rider?

That would have been a bit too much. We aimed to have experienced riders, like Cesare and Mirko, who also need to have a good ear. Since it’s a prototype with very few kilometers and no direct comparisons, they can give the team the right indications, which is not easy. A younger rider with less experience could have been a double difficulty, for both him and us. We’re not yet ready to have a machine suited to a rider with little experience. Maybe in the future; for now we hope that in the next races we’ll have progressed enough in development to understand the bike better and make it faster.

Misano test, maximum attention to the rider’s feedback. Photo: Leonardo Alessio

What’s the spirit?

The Imola weekend was perfect and we showed that we are here, we can invest in this project. Emotionally it was very, very special, and I think Cesare wasn’t used to doing a race where 50–60 students in the garage give you a wave if you finish the race! But it was also a first milestone for a previous generation.

What do you expect?

We’re sorry there’s no Thursday practice; it would have been an extra help. Last year in the wild card at Imola with Cesare we also had Thursday to get to the race more prepared. We’re short on mileage, but we’re building on the tests, in which we had no reliability issues, just a few things to sort out. Now we need to get familiar and also show that this isn’t a pie-in-the-sky experiment, but that we’re starting from solid foundations. We’re all confident for the first race; then at Mugello we’ll start from scratch again, but one step at a time.

Is there a bit of tension?

Yes, there’s definitely tension; it’s also part of my role and responsibilities, and the mechanics are like me this year, so I see the same symptoms [laughs]. But it’s positive tension. After Imola, though, I think things will be better for my heart at Misano!