The 2026 Moto2 season will see a new Italian face on the grid, that of rookie Luca Lunetta, who will speed around the track in the colours of Luca Boscoscoscuro's SpeedRS team alongside Celestino Vietti, two Italian riders making up one of the leading realities of the category. Many prominent names have come through the ranks of the Italian team over the years before arriving in the premier class, from Iannone to Pol Espargarò, from Quartararo to Di Giannantonio, to most recently Aldeguer.
Very young (19 years old), Lunetta's is the story of a boy and his passion for motorcycle racing, now in his second act in the world championship, but it's also the story of a number, 58, the one raced by Marco Simoncelli, which the young Roman has always worn proudly and respectfully on his bike. A 58 that in these two years had "come home" in Paolo Simoncelli's team, and which will now face a new adventure and new challenges. In the run-up to the holiday season, just fifteen years after that fateful Christmas when he received his first minimoto, we caught up with him to check out his thoughts, dreams, and expectations as the next Moto2 world championship season approaches.
A new chapter in your career begins, you will race in Moto2 with Boscoscoscuro's SpeedRS team alongside Vietti, in an all-Italian team. How did it all come together?
"I'm super excited at the thought that I will be a Moto2 rider," the Roman began, "one step closer to my dream. Now I have to enjoy this opportunity as best as I can, it's not every day you get such an important train so I'm really grateful and I want to thank Luca Boscoscoscuro for the trust he put in me. In the box I will be working with two Spaniards, my new crew chief José Ruiz "Josete" and data technician Antonio Barroso, with whom we got on immediately. I am really pumped up and confident in the project and can't wait to get started."
A three-year term is a great show of confidence, what's it like working with Boscoscuro?
"With Luca I immediately got on well, it's really good the will to win that he has, he wants to bring home the result. He believes so much in his guys and he really believed in me at a difficult time too, because when I signed the contract I was injured, he made a real bet on me. Even though I had shown my speed in Moto3, he saw something in me, he liked me right away and we found a good chemistry. He had great confidence in me, the basic desire is to win the first race but you have to get there one step at a time, I mustn't be in a hurry. He said to me "we have to win but slowly," he has a lot of desire and we are on the same line. We talk every day, we did it even while I was in Spain training, and it's nice to have this support not only on a professional level but also on a personal level, it makes you feel part of the project."
You have already had a first approach with your new team and the bike in the Jerez tests. What are the differences between the two categories?
"The tests went well right away, I was impressed by the team's drive and desire to improve and get there. I did 112 laps over the two days, plus two days in the Junior GP during testing, although the real testing was at Jerez. I felt good with both the bike and the team, but obviously there is still a lot of work to do, a lot of new things to understand for Moto2, which is a very difficult category. I was lacking a little something in endurance, the flying lap came out well but I still have to work on my consistency, I still have to adapt my physique. But I'm happy because at the physical level I think my height could prove to be an advantage, I'm quite tall, almost 5'8", on a Moto3 bike I was struggling a little bit to stay in the fairing and with the right weight. For Moto3 the weight should be around 58-59kg, with my height it was impossible, I was 4-5kg above the optimal weight and that didn't help in restarts. In acceleration I was losing something, and with more weight you consume a little bit more rubber, you push the bike more and with my riding style I was pushing the front."
"So there were a few things in the past that didn't make me reach all the goals I set for myself, but that made me give that extra 10 percent to be able to stay with the front guys. On tracks with more flow instead, like Indonesia, I even finished on the podium. The Moto2 bike on the other hand on its part is cool, you can let it run a lot, it's really nice to ride, it transmits a lot of emotions, a lot of feeling. The change from Moto3 is for sure quite big, but since I tested it I started to smile even more, it has more acceleration, more "meat" when you give gas, it transmits you more than Moto3 which is maybe a little stiffer, and also the tyres are twice as much so I will have to get used to it. The thing that's also a little scary is the braking, which is very different and sometimes it's complicated. The bike brakes so much, it allows you to brake with Moto3 reference points, something I noticed a lot at Jerez. You brake where Moto3 brakes, but you get there with that extra 20-30kmh depending on the corners. Overall I thought it was really fun."
Your training will also change a lot.
"Now I'll have to get used to the speed a little more, in fact, as early as January I'll start training. Before the holidays I had a week in Spain where I gave everything before stopping for surgery (to remove screws, ed.), which was important. It was a week in which I began to understand the method of the Spanish, because in January I want to go back with clear ideas. The climate is on their side and they have more facilities, they are facilitated in that respect. Also you find many world championship riders there, you train with them so the comparison raises the level."
Old rivals moving up the category will be joined by new ones, you will face them with a team that in the past has brought up names now in MotoGP like Quartararo, Di Giannantonio and Aldeguer.
"Moto2 is a category with a stratospheric level, there are several Moto3 world champions, MotoGP riders like Gonzalez who had all the right cards to make the transition. Then there are my rivals since the rookies, Piqueras, Rueda, Holgado, Alonso, Veijer, are all super riders, good and talented. Then of course there will be Celestino Vietti on the other side of the box. We got to talk at the tests although not so much because we had different schedules. Besides being a good guy and talented, he has done great things in these years in Moto2, I am happy to have him as a teammate. I want to work hard to prepare myself in the best possible way, I know my potential and working in the right way I can do good things, fight for wins. However, we will also have to try not to be in too much of a hurry in the initial part, because it's okay to be eager but not to take the extra steps either, to bring home some experience, I'm not a basic come-and-fly rider, I need to consolidate my speed on the track, but I'm sure I will learn quickly."
The ultimate dream to achieve remains MotoGP.
"MotoGP riders are all idols from first to last, what they do is my dream and I respect them. Acosta has always been the rider I am inspired by a little because of his speed and riding style, which I like very much. The return of Marquez also was mind-blowing, he is a hard worker, a unique talent. But I would also like to mention Di Giannantonio, who I spend a lot of time with at home and in training. To have a rider like him by my side is something unique, to have a friend in MotoGP is something really nice and he gives me a lot of advice in all aspects of the life of a rider. We have always been very close friends, and I still remember an advice from him at the time when I was in the rookies, it was 2021 and I don't remember if I was fighting Holgado or Moreira, I was struggling a little bit and he told me, "they have two arms two legs and a head like you, if they do it you can do it too." This sentence made me think a lot, we always do track walks together and now that I will be in Moto2 his advice can become even closer. This friendship we have is fundamental and really nice."