Who is Valentino Rossi’s newest MotoGP star?

“Something that I said to my girlfriend, we were eating and I was looking at my house, and I said, ‘where can I put my first MotoGP trophy?’ But it’s incredible, it’s many races this has happened. Like, in Mugello I had a dream that I was in the qualifying behind Pecco and I passed him on the straight and I made the pole position and I heard the noise from the fans. And in the qualifying I almost made pole, third position. And now here it’s fantastic.”

Eccentricity seems to be a trait Valentino Rossi likes in his VR46 Academy riders, and Marco Bezzecchi seems to have that in spades as he spoke to the media following his maiden MotoGP podium.

Carrying a rock star look just like his mentor or the late Marco Simoncelli, Bezzecchi’s premonitions about his 2022 rookie MotoGP campaign may have some truth to them as the young Italian has looked well on course for big things.

Making his full-time grand prix debut in Moto3 in 2017 on an unfancied Mahindra, Bezzecchi – who was picked up by the VR46 Academy when was 15 - ended the campaign with a podium to his credit in Japan before launching a title challenge in 2018 with a switch to the Prustel GP team aboard a KTM. Bezzecchi won three times, scored six other podiums on his way to third in the standings.

This was enough to earn him a Moto2 graduation in 2019 with Tech3, though the troubled KTM chassis made his campaign incredibly difficult. He scored points on just four occasions, amassing a meek total of 17. But Rossi’s VR46 squad offered him sanctuary in 2020, Bezzecchi winning twice to finish fourth in the standings, while he did one better last year to finish the year third in the championship.

When Rossi’s VR46 team was announced as stepping up to MotoGP in 2022 via the bizarre statement from Saudi company Tanal Entertainment, which made untrue claims that a title sponsorship deal with Aramco was funding the project (Aramco always denied it had agreed any deal, with Italian banking company Mooney eventually becoming VR46’s title partner), Bezzecchi’s promotion to the premier class was all but assured.

Very quickly Bezzecchi began to show flashes of speed, finishing ninth three races into 2022 in Argentina

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

One of four rookies stepping up to MotoGP in 2022, Bezzecchi in many ways was the one under the least amount of pressure. He had a two-year deal in his back pocket, while all eyes were on Tech3 KTM duo and Moto2’s leading men from the year before Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, and RNF’s Darryn Binder as he jumped straight from Moto3.

To boot, he was on arguably the best bike on the grid – the Ducati GP21. Specifically, the GP21 that belonged to Francesco Bagnaia when he won four times and finished runner-up in the standings in 2021.

“The first time I saw Marco or [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, or even Enea [Bastianini], with the 21 I was thinking that they were very competitive from the start because it’s a really great bike, it’s very close to my one,” Bagnaia said after his Dutch GP win.

“So, it’s quite clear that the riders with the 21… for sure, when they have to overtake a limit [of the GP21] they will have more problems. But they are doing a great job. This bike was already so competitive last year, was the best one last year, I think it’s a really great bike to start with. Bezzecchi has started the season with my bike completely. At the start of the test I was going to the team, I said, ‘Marco has to have my bike’.”

One of four rookies stepping up to MotoGP in 2022, Bezzecchi in many ways was the one under the least amount of pressure

Very quickly Bezzecchi began to show flashes of speed, finishing ninth three races into 2022 in Argentina. In Portugal he navigated iffy conditions to qualify sixth, before fading to 15th in the race. Again, at Jerez – this time in perfect conditions – he proved quick over a single lap to qualify eighth, and only lost one position at the chequered flag.

The major breakthrough came at Mugello. Coming through a wet-to-dry Q1, Bezzecchi put his 2021-spec Ducati second on the grid behind Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, also on a GP21, and ahead of VR46 team-mate Luca Marini (who is riding the GP22). But while Marini slid to sixth and Di Giannantonio 11th in the race, Bezzecchi ran in the podium places for the first 17 of the 23-lap race before finishing fourth.

While the likes of Jerez, Argentina and Mugello were venues he’d previously scored podiums at in the other grand prix classes, Assen had proven much trickier for him. Yet it was his strongest weekend of the year, as he qualified fourth and pushed Bagnaia through the race to finish second.

Coming through a wet-to-dry Q1, Bezzecchi put his 2021-spec Ducati second on the grid at Mugello

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

In another display of how unfazed Bezzecchi is by everything around him, his response when asked why he proved so quick at Assen on a MotoGP bike was telling.

“I don’t know,” he said. “No, well, honestly I was happy to come here because it’s a track that I like but I always arrived close to the podium but never on the podium. But honestly when I started from home I didn’t expect to fight for the podium.

“I felt good and maybe the key for my race was that I worked with a tyre that didn’t have grip at all with the medium and I put the soft in for the race and the bike was another bike. So, I just tried to not stress the tyre too much, be intelligent with the power mapping, try to be smooth on gas especially on the right side, and then try to follow Pecco and escape from Maverick [Vinales].”

Not once in 2022 has Bezzecchi given off the impression of someone who has much of an ego. That’s indicative of most of Rossi’s proteges, but it is clearly key to his growth. Together with his crew chief Matteo Flamigni, Bezzecchi fills out a spreadsheet after each race listing everything he has learned.

There is a thought now that Bezzecchi’s podium tally will start to grow considerably when the season resumes in August at Silverstone. But the 23-year-old has no aspirations of this becoming the norm in 2022 as his learning period is far from over.

“Obviously it’s very, very important of course, because it was something I was dreaming to achieve and I didn’t expect to achieve it so early,” he said of his Assen podium. “But in the end, I’m still a rookie, so my mentality is this: when I come back for the second part of the season, I don’t want to expect a good race like this always because there will be tracks where I struggle more, and one where I struggle less.

“So, the best way to continue the work is to try to make the best every race. When there is the possibility like today, try to use this possibility to get the maximum result. But when I don’t have the possibility, try to get the maximum of that day – if it’s a P10, or a P12, or another podium. The podium is better, this is clear, but I think being a rookie it’s normal to have some ups and downs.”

Perhaps this mentality is what double MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner meant when he said last year “I saw something I didn't see in other riders in him”, referring to Bezzecchi.

Clearly, any rider carrying ringing endorsements from both Rossi and Stoner must possess something special. Over the first half of the 2022 season, Bezzecchi – who is 37 points clear of the next-best rookie in the standings – has shown this faith has not been misplaced. And while he still has much to prove, Bezzecchi looks well on his way to continuing his mentor’s legacy in the future.

Bezzecchi was picked up by mentor Valentino Rossi and the VR46 Academy when he was just 15