Romano Fenati (born 15 January 1996) is an Italian motorcycle racer who competed in the FIM Road Racing World Championship between 2012 and 2023 in the Moto3 and Moto2 categories.
He was European 125 cc Champion in 2011,[1] championship runner-up of the Italian 125GP series, and also competed in the Spanish 125GP series.
Romano Fenati competed in Moto3 beween 2012 and 2023, winning thirteen races. He raced in Moto2 in 2018 and 2022, each time being released by his teams before season end. He finally left Moto3 after the 2023 season as he had reached the maximum permitted age of 28 years old.
Fenati's conduct has led to disciplinary action from teams and authorities. Amongst these is an incident during a Moto2 race in September 2018, when he pulled alongside rival Stefano Manzi at speed, reached across and grabbed Manzi's front brake lever. This dangerous action was punished by Fenati's racing licence being revoked for the rest of the season and by termination of his contract with the Marinelli Snipers team.[2][3][4]
Career
Born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, Fenati is featured in the 2016 documentary film Il Mago Mancini ("Mancini, the Motorcycle Wizard").[5]
For the 2012 Moto3 season, Fenati signed with Team Italia FMI riding an FTR Honda. At Round 1 in Qatar, he finished 2nd in his debut race. He then went on to claim his first victory at the second race of the season in Jerez, Spain. In doing so, Fenati became the first rider since Noboru Ueda in 1991 to take two podiums in his first two Grand Prix starts and the youngest ever rider in Grand Prix motorcycle racing history to lead the World Championship. He finished 6th in the championship.[6]
San Carlo Team Italia (2013)
The 2013 season was disappointing for Fenati as he did not record any podium finishes, with his best position being 5th. He finished 10th in the final championship standings, with 73 points.
Sky Racing Team VR46 (2014–2016)
For the 2014 Moto3 season, Fenati signed with Valentino Rossi's Sky Racing Team by VR46. It was an up and down season for Fenati, as he scored four podiums in the first six races and ultimately recorded four wins during the season. However, inconsistent results ultimately left him in 5th position in the championship with 176 points.
The 2015 season was also an under-performance for Fenati. Though he maintained some consistency finishing in the top five in eight races, including a victory at Le Mans. Poor qualifying positions for Fenati resulted in the loss of vital points, and he finished the season with 176 points as he did in 2014 but placed one position higher in the standings.
Fenati started the 2016 season with a pole position at Qatar. However, he only managed 4th in the race. He finished in 20th in Argentina, before his first win of the season in the United States. He was seventh at Jerez, before a second-place finish at Le Mans, losing out to Brad Binder by 0.099 seconds. Fenati qualified on pole at Mugello, but failed to finish the race. He was fourth in both Catalunya and Netherlands, before a pointless 18 position in Germany. Fenati was dropped by Sky Racing VR46 in Austria as a disciplinary action for disagreeing with Uccio Salucci. On 16 August the VR46 team terminated their contract with Romano for the 2016 and 2017 seasons stating behavioural issues in conflict with team policy as the reason behind the split.
Marinelli Rivacold Snipers (2017)
In 2017, Fenati joined Marinelli Rivacold Snipers team and had his best season to date: three wins and five second places to finish as runner-up in the Moto3 championship.
Moto2 World Championship
Marinelli Snipers Moto2 (2018)
On 9 September 2018, at the 2018 San Marino Grand Prix, Fenati was immediately disqualified after grabbing the front brake lever of rival rider Stefano Manzi,[7] which resulted in a two-race ban. His Marinelli Snipers team then terminated their contract with Fenati following the incident.[8] In November 2018 it was announced that he would return for the 2019 season in the Moto3 class.[9][10]
Return to Moto3
VNE Snipers (2019)
He competed for VNE Snipers team for the whole of the 2019 Moto3 season.
Sterilgarda Max Racing Team (2020–2021)
A high point of this time with the team was qualifying in pole position for the 2021 Austrian GP, a feat that he had last achieved at the British Grand Prix in 2017.[11]
Rivacold Snipers Team (2023)
For the 2023 season, Fenati competed in Moto3 with Rivacold Snipers Team.
Return to Moto2
Speed Up Racing (2022)
Fenati joined Speed Up Racing to compete in Moto2 for the 2022 season. After the first few races, in May 2022, Fenati was sacked from the team because of poor results.[12][13][14]
Controversies
Fenati has interfered with other riders a number of times. In the 2015 Argentine Grand Prix, he kicked Niklas Ajo during the warm-up and also turned Ajo's engine off during the practice start. As a consequence he was forced to start the race at the back of the field.[15] The following year he was sacked from the VR46 Team for undisclosed disciplinary reasons.[16]
In September 2018, Fenati pulled Stefano Manzi's front brake lever during a race when both were travelling at more than 200 km/h (120 mph). He apologized but was dropped from the Marinelli Snipers Team for the offence.[17][18] His future contract to ride for Forward Racing using MV Agusta machines in 2019 was cancelled on 11 September.[19] On 12 September, he announced his immediate retirement from racing, while suggesting that Manzi's own actions were partially responsible for the incident.[20] An Italian consumer-rights group, Codacons, subsequently stated that it had raised the matter with local prosecutors and asked them to investigate "any relevant criminal offences, including that of attempted murder".[21] The authorities later determined that a charge of "private violence", similar to a road rage incident, was more appropriate.[22]
On 21 September, in addition to a preliminary two-race ban imposed earlier, after meeting with the FIM at their headquarters in Mies, Switzerland, on 18 September, it was announced that Fenati's racing licence was revoked for the remainder of the 2018 season.[3] He made a comeback to Moto3 for the 2019 season.
