The young Italian embodying his legendary MotoGP team owner

Turning up to his final debrief of the 2023 MotoGP season with a beer in hand having been caught up in a lap one collision to quite eloquently slam Marc Marquez for being “the dirtiest” rider on the field summed Marco Bezzecchi up to a tee.

Bezzecchi comes across as a cool, laid-back character, strolling the MotoGP paddock like it’s his playground. It’s easy to understand where that comes from. The VR46 team and the VR46 Academy that has developed Bezzecchi are, of course, owned by MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.

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The nine-times grand prix world champion won the hearts of millions by being a rock star off-track who was devastatingly talented on it. Racing was fun, but the dedication needed to continue to be successful for such a long time was never lost on Rossi. That approach permeates every venture Rossi has undertaken in his career and is very evident in his riders, not least Bezzecchi.

“The balance between fun and job and good results needs to stay concentrated,” VR46 team director Uccio Salucci told Autosport in 2023. “For sure we are a family, funny team. But we need to remain focused.”

Bezzecchi has been a quick learner in grand prix racing. He scored a maiden podium in his first year in Moto3 before challenging for the title in year two in 2018. A step up to Moto2 in 2019 was difficult due to the lacklustre KTM chassis he was on, but a move to VR46 on a Kalex the following year yielded two wins. Not quite on par with the title challengers in 2021, Bezzecchi was still third in the standings and earned his promotion to MotoGP with VR46 Ducati for the next season.

Bezzecchi was a cut above the rest of the rookie crop in 2022, scoring a podium at Assen and finishing the year 87 points clear of the next newcomer in the standings. Year two has been standout, with the 25-year-old scoring three grand prix wins on his way to third in the standings on a year-old Ducati, remaining in title contention as an outsider until the Malaysian GP.

“I expected to go fast but never to get so many good results, especially because it’s only my second season,” Bezzecchi tells Autosport about his year. “But as soon as we started, I saw that with the bike I was feeling confident and I was going fast, having good lap times in the test. But test compared to race weekend is always different, so I wanted to wait until Portimao, which…