Honda Racing released the following press release, containing a fascinating interview with San Carlo Honda Gresini team manager Fausto Gresini. In the interview, Gresini talks about the decision to stop racing and become a team manager, explains why he chose Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista instead of another Italian rider to replace Marco Simoncelli, tragically killed at Sepang, and why he believes the CRT bikes are a necessity. Here is the interview:
Interview - Fausto Gresini - Team Manager - Gresini Honda
Fausto Gresini is the most successful team owner in the history of MotoGP racing. His story as a team owner begins three years after the two-time 125cc World Champion retired from racing in 1994. It was then that he made the transition, focusing the drive and ambition that he displayed as a rider on team ownership. At the start, the Italian worked with veterans-Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi-but it is his work mentoring young riders where he has had some of his greatest impact.
In 2001, his fifth year as a team owner, Gresini won his first World championship with Daijiro Kato in the 250cc class. But the rising and likeable Japanese star would not be given time to show his true potential; his career and life were cut short as a result of injuries suffered in a crash in the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Nine years later, Kato remains a strong presence within Gresini Racing; his 2001 title-winning Honda NSR250 and his 2003 Honda RC211V sit in the conference room of the team’s race shop in San Clemente, near Riccione, Italy.
