Superbike: when privateers challenged the giants, the rise and fall of PSG-1 Corse

Romantic stories or ambiguous business operations? Twenty years ago, the Superbike World Championship was full of private teams, sometimes with machinery registered in San Marino. They didn’t rely on factory structures and tried their luck in the world of racing. They lasted a few years, then vanished.

PSG-1 Corse was one of them. The team was completely private, driven by great passion but perhaps also by the hope of striking good deals. Its goal was to challenge factory giants with infinitely superior resources. Born at the end of the ’90s, it competed in the Superbike World Championship from 2003 to mid-2009.

Initially, PSG-1 chose Ducati before switching to Kawasaki. The bikes were competitive but not factory-backed. The team had to save wherever possible and often used the previous year’s equipment. PSG-1 Corse raced with limited resources, a small staff, and enormous pressure on results: every race could decide the project’s survival.

There were no superstars in the saddle, but riders who embodied the true spirit of Superbike. Pierfrancesco “Frankie” Chili, on his Ducati, took center stage in 2003 and 2004, taking wins and podiums that felt like magic in the face of adversity. Then came international veterans: Régis Laconi, who tackled each race with the calm of a seasoned Frenchman, Fonsi Nieto, who climbed the podium at Magny-Cours 2007 as if it were a small heroic feat, and Chris Walker, who in 2006 at Assen delivered the team’s most famous victory on a Kawasaki.

Young Italians also had their chance: Matteo Baiocco and Ayrton Badovini found themselves battling not only their rivals but also the team’s financial difficulties, turning every race into an act of pure resilience.

For PSG-1 Corse, the problem wasn’t technique or passion, but financial sustainability. Travel, spare parts, engine development, specialized personnel: everything grew faster than revenue. In those years it was easy for teams to be born, but just as easy to die. It was the era of those who jumped without a parachute hoping to fly, or to float in the air like seagulls, or at least not get hurt too badly.

After losing sponsors and reducing the squad to a single rider, PSG-1 Corse withdrew definitively from the Superbike World Championship in July 2006. There was no shortage of controversy over the non-payment of around 50,000 euros in wages, as reported by the San Marino unions in a statement. The curtain fell, then, on a romantic yet much-debated team.