Romano Fenati will return to the Moto3 championship in 2019.
Fenati gained infamy when he grabbed Stefano Manzi’s front brake lever at the San Marino GP in September this year. In the firestorm that followed, Dorna slapped a Fenati with a two-race ban. The FIM banned Fenati for the rest of the season, on the other hand. His Marinelli Snipers Moto2 gave him the marching orders.
If that wasn’t enough, the Forward Racing Team which is slated to campaign with MV Agusta in Moto2 in the 2019 season also dropped him. Soon, MV Agusta’s Boss, Giovanni Castiglioni tweeted that he will not allow Fenati to ride his bikes.
Moto2: MV Agusta Cancels 2019 Moto2 Contract with Romano Fenati
Ironically, Stefano Manzi is the current and future rider in the Forward Racing Team. He would’ve been Fenati’s teammate next year. It was later established that Manzi had provoked Fenati. Was Manzi playing mind games to establish the pecking order?
Anyway, Fenati announced that he’d leave racing and concentrate on continuing his studies.
But MotoGP.com has just dropped a bombshell by announcing that Fenati’s Marinelli Snipers team has re-employed him for the 2019 Moto3 season. The team has just signed on Tony Arbalino, thus Fenati will be his teammate.
Marinelli Snipers has good reasons to re-sign Fenati as the fiery Italian took 23 podium finishes with 10 wins in the starter class. He finished second overall in 2017, after all.
The team and Fenati have not made official announcements, but we expect that to happen at the final round at Valencia this weekend.
On a personal note, we hope that Romano Fenati puts his raw talent to greater use and keep his temper in check. This must be the very last chance he’d ever get.
Giovanni Castiglioni telah mengumumkan yang mereka akan membatalkan kontrak Romano Fenati bersama MV Agusta bagi Kejohanan Moto2 2019.
Fenati telah menimbulkan kontroversi setelah menggenggam tuil brek hadapan Stefano Manzi sewaktu GP San Marino.
Fenati telah dikenakan penggantungan sebanyak dua perlumbaan tetapi ramai yang merasakan yang dia patut diharamkan dari perlumbaan motosikal sama sekali.
Giovanni Castiglioni announced on his Instagram account that MV Agusta he will stop Romano Fenati from his contracted ride for MV Agusta in the 2019 Moto2 season.
Hot headed Moto2 rider Fenati caused an uproar among racing fans for his actions at the San Marino Grand Prix yesterday. Ironically, Manzi is the current rider for the Forward Racing Team who are the team running MV Agusta and contracted Fenati for next season.
Giovanni, the CEO of MV Agusta, did not mince his words and opined that Fenati’s actions was the “worse and saddest thing he had seen in a bike race,” before going on to say that he would have handed Fenati a lifetime ban if he was with Dorna.
Indeed, Fenati had been handed a 2-race ban by Dorna and FIM from the next GP but everyone, including us, is of the opinion that it is not enough. Banging fairings is one thing but applying the brakes at 230 km/h could have caused Manzi to flip over.
If the race ban is ridiculous, adding insult is Dorna docking Manzi with a six-grid placing penalty at the next GP. Other MotoGP riders have done worse stuff and gotten away.
Manzi had lunged inside Fenati at Turn Four when the latter went wide. Fenati turned back toward the apex and the two came together, and almost crashing. However, both riders managed to collect themselves and continue riding. Fenati then caught up with Manzi after Turn Seven and squeezed the latter’s front brake lever when they were side-by-side. Manzi would go on to crash in a separate incident two laps later, while Fenati was black flagged for “irresponsible riding.” Please click on the video below to watch.
If Moto3 is usually always exciting, let us be honest, Moto2 is snooze inducing (to put it kindly). The Moto2 contest at the San Marino GP was going to be no different, what with Francessco Bagnaia running away with his home grand prix. Well, that was until the red mist descended on racing bad boy Romano Fenati.
Fenati had been running down in 15th, when Stefano Manzi snuck his bike inside the formers into a right hander. When Fenati turned toward the apex, both riders came together and ran wide into the sand trap but managed to stay upright.
It was visible at that moment that Fenati was furious and he gesticulated wildly at Manzi.
As the camera focused adoringly (read: boringly) on the race leader, it suddenly cut away to Fenati’s team preparing the pitboard signaling that the rider had been DQ’d (disqualified). Soon, the we saw the slow-motion footage of Fenati riding up beside Manzi, then reaching out with his left hand to squeeze the latter’s front brake lever.
Romano Fenati had great talent and was one of the first riders picked by Valentino Rossi himself to ride in his SKY Racing Team by VR46 in the Moto3 Championship back in 2014. He was sometimes brilliant while totally nowhere in the remainder. Yet, the team knew he had raw talent and retained his services.
In 2016, he was suddenly dropped beginning the Austrian GP and his contract for the remainder of the year and 2017 was terminated. The team would later cite “behavioral issues in conflict with team policies.”
But Marinelli Honda decided to take gamble and signed Fenati for the 2017 Moto3 season. The team was rewarded with three victories and five second places as Fenati finished second overall.
He moved up to Moto2 this and suffered tremendously as he languished near the tail end. However, MV Agusta has signed him up for their foray into Moto2 in 2019.
In our opinion, such action is unquestionably dangerous and inexcusable, besides being just one of a few cases. Dorna and the FIM has not published any actions on Fenati at the moment but expect a heavy penalty.
We reported earlier that the famed Italian marque, MV Agusta will be joining the Moto2 grid from 2019, but the manufacturer did not announce the rider at the time. MV Agusta had finally announced that Romano Fenati will pilot the bike alongside a stablemate.
Do note that all Moto2 bikes will use the new Triumph 765cc Triple engine next year, despite the bike is branded as MV Agusta. Triumph supplies the engine while builders such as Kalex, Speed Up, KTM and MV Agusta complete the rest of the bike.
The signing of Fenati is seen as something of great interest among fans. He was unceremoniously sacked from Valentino Rossi-backed Sky VR46 team in 2016 after being abusive to members of the team. Since then he had to carry the reputation of being hard to work with.
Marinelli Honda contracted him for the 2017 Moto3 season where he finished 2nd overall. Fenati made the jump to the Moto2 class for 2018 but he has been experiencing a horrid season and is currently in 19th position with just 14 points.
While MV Agusta has stated that their Moto2 involvement is for the long-term, signing Fenati on as rider could be a risk to them. But Fenati does have real talent and speed.
“I am very happy and honoured to take part in this prestigious project and to join such a cohesive and competent group as the Forward Racing Team is,” the fiery Italian said. “Driving the F2 will be a source of great pride for me and will be an important responsibility, so I will give all my contribution and my experience to achieve excellent results.”
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