Motorcycling in mourning: Genesio Bevilacqua, the soul of Althea Racing, has passed away

Genesio Bevilacqua has passed away, one of the most charismatic, debated, and least conventional figures in the paddock. The entrepreneur from Lazio founded a company in the ceramics sector before launching the Althea team in 2007 and later the "Moto dei Miti" collection.

In sports, he reached the pinnacle in 2011, the year he won the Superbike World Championship with Carlos Checa on the Ducati 1098R, collecting 15 wins and 21 podiums. It was a historic feat, a sporting miracle that Bevilacqua always claimed with great pride.

Under his management, Althea also won the Superstock 1000 title with Davide Giugliano and with Raffaele De Rosa. Bevilacqua was able to win with different manufacturers, moving from Ducati to BMW and then through the unfortunate stint with Honda, demonstrating an organizational ability that went beyond ties to a single brand.

Genesio Bevilacqua’s latest challenge saw the Althea team take center stage in Supersport with the Ducati Panigale V2. The strongest bond of this period was with Raffaele De Rosa. Together they achieved important podiums, proving that the Civita Castellana outfit hadn’t lost the sparkle of its best days. The team’s most recent major satisfactions came from Federico Caricasulo in 2023, with a win, seven total podiums, and fourth place in the final standings. In the last two seasons the team did not achieve particularly notable results but still played a prominent role.

Bevilacqua was a man who did not like compromises, and this often led him to clash head-on with everything around him. His relationship with the riders was an emblematic example of this edginess: capable of great intuition and of placing trust in young talents, he was just as quick to go on the offensive publicly when things did not go as planned. He made no secret of his displeasure and used no filters, leading to noisy breakups that often split public opinion between those who appreciated his frankness and those who criticized his hardline management.