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Fabio Di Giannantonio admits that he is proud to be joining the Valentino Rossi team (Mooney VR46 Ducati) in the upcoming 2024 MotoGP / Photo: Collage
Fabio Di Giannantonio said he was proud to be joining the Valentino Rossi team (Mooney VR46 Ducati) in the upcoming 2024 MotoGP. He didn’t want to waste this opportunity to learn a lot from the legend.
Di Giannantonio will later replace Luca Marini, who will leave for the Repsol Honda team next season. The racer, known as Diggia, said that this was a moment that had to be utilized as best as possible to learn from Rossi.
“Yes, I’m still trying to understand what happened. This is an extraordinary moment, I’m very proud (of joining Valentino Rossi’s team),” said Diggia as quoted by Speedweek, Tuesday (28/11/2023).
“Knowing that I will be driving a monster at the Valentino team is an extraordinary thing. I think I can learn a lot from it. This is a great opportunity for me,” he added.
However, in the last few days Diggia has only spoken by telephone with Rossi. Therefore, before trying out the Desmosedici GP23 with his new team in Valencia on Tuesday (28/11/2023), he wanted to meet him first to express his gratitude to the legend.
“But I want to meet him first and first thank him for his trust. So it’s always nice to talk to Valentino. You can always learn something,” explained the 25 year old rider.
Nevertheless, Diggia did not deny that he was very sad to leave Gresini, the team he had played for since his debut in Moto3 in 2015. They only separated for two seasons in Moto2 2019 and 2020 when Diggia defended Speed Up Racing, until finally they were together again in the following season and then the Rome-born rider was promoted to MotoGP in the 2022 season.
“I have a lot of emotions related to this team. We hated each other, we loved each other, we left each other, came back together and lost each other again,” said the number 49 racer.
“There are really a lot of emotions and for me this has always been my home. When I was cleaning my office on Sunday and was alone, I tried to calm myself down, but ended up shedding a few tears,” he concluded.
(fly)