Loris Capirossi is a remarkable sportsman. The Italian is one of the few riders currently racing who can boast such a dazzling array of victories and championship titles to his name. As he joins Ducati, Loris opens another fascinating chapter in his brilliant career and grasps an opportunity to finally climb to the highest level of GP racing and become MotoGP champion. The story so far has been incredible…

Loris began his World Championship career way back in 1990, winning the 125 title at his very first attempt at just 17 years of age with Team Pileri Honda. That success made the teen star the youngest-ever world champ. Ever since that amazing first coup, Loris has continued to impress and delight fans, retaining the 125 crown in 1991, then graduating to the 250 class, which he finally conquered in 1998 after a brief excursion into 500’s. He returned to the premier class in 2000, winning that year’s Italian 500 GP after an unforgettable confrontation with fellow Italian gladiators Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. In 2003, a year after the premier class went four-stroke, Loris gets his chance to compete for Grand Prix racing’s biggest prize aboard the Ducati MotoGP Team’s awesome 220+ horsepower Desmosedici V4.

This new partnership between Italy’s longest-established GP hero and the nation’s most famous motorcycle marquee is richly deserved by Loris, who remains one of the sport’s most easygoing characters, entirely unaffected by his status as one of his country’s biggest sports stars. Married last year to Ingrid Tence, Loris enjoys the quiet life as much as he enjoys the fast and glamorous world of Grand Prix racing.

Like most modern-day racers, he commenced his love affair with bikes at a very early age. Born in Castel San Pietro, Italy, Loris was riding dirt bikes when he was five, quickly learning the art of throttle control, so vital with today’s extraordinarily powerful race machines. But it was road racing that really interested him and he contested his first tarmac season at the age of 14, riding a modified Honda NS125 road bike to sixth in the Italian Production Championship. A year later he was ninth in the 125 Italian Championship aboard a Mancini, and in 1989 he showed real promise aboard a Honda in the 125 Euro series. He took fourth overall, winning four rounds as he readied himself for promotion to the World Championship scene.

His first world crown was a truly remarkable accomplishment. Aged just 16 at the start of the 1990 season, he made his GP debut as number two rider to team-mate and ex-World Champion Fausto Gresini. He approached the season as an apprenticeship and yet showed no fear for the experienced opposition, scoring his first podium at Misano in May, his first win at Donington Park in August and securing the title with a hard-fought third victory in the Australian season finale. With the number one plate on his Honda RS125 in 1991, Loris Capirossi was the man everyone wanted to beat, but he admirably shrugged off the pressure, winning a further five victories for his second title.

For 1992 Capirossi moved up to the 250 class and had to master the art of riding a doubly powerful Honda RS250. The bike was not as rapid as the full-factory machines ridden by many of his rivals, but it proved a perfect introduction to the ultra-competitive class. Once again Loris proved a quick learner, and despite his bike’s power disadvantage he was up with the leaders in only the third GP of the year.

For 1993 he was equipped with full-factory Honda NSR250’s and immediately fulfilled the previous season’s promise. He won his first 250 GP at Assen in June and took two more victories to lead the series into the final race, but an incorrect tyre choice lost him the crown. Loris could have been forgiven a tantrum following his misfortune but was as dignified in defeat as he is in victory. His 1994 season began with wins in Austria, Germany, France and Britain but he succumbed to Biaggi’s super-fast Aprilia later in the campaign, finishing third in the championship.


Some experts questioned his decision to quit 250’s and join the premier 500 class with Team Pileri Honda for 1995. But the ever-determined Loris proved them wrong by qualifying on the front row at only his second 500 GP. He qualified on the front row a further four times but struggled with machine set-up over race distance. Nevertheless, he crowned the season with a thrilling third-place finish at the final European GP to climb his first 500 podium.

He changed teams in 1996, joining Yamaha Team Rainey. This was an up-and-down year, brightened by his first 500 GP victory at Eastern Creek, Australia, but in the long term he benefited hugely from the wisdom of team boss Wayne Rainey, a former three-time 500 champion.

For 1997 Loris accepted an offer from Aprilia to return to the 250 class… he had unfinished business there. This first season on Aprilia’s fickle disc-valve V-twins brought a handful of DNFs, three podium finishes and no wins, but he got to grips with the bikes the following summer and took the title. In 1999 he returned to Honda and finished third overall.


Loris changed classes once more in 2000, returning to the premier class with Sito Pons’ Honda team. He won the Italian GP and finished on the podium a further three times while staying out of the Biaggi/Rossi off-track contretemps. As ever, he showed remarkable courage in the face of injury after scoring his first 500 pole position at June’s Dutch GP, where he fell in morning warm-up, breaking bones in his left hand. With the aid of Doctor Costa’s Clinica Mobile he raced to a remarkable third place finish. Loris put together a more consistent season in 2001, taking his year-old Honda to podium finishes in nine of the 16 races to end the year third overall.

His frustration would worsen in 2002 when he had no choice but to continue on year-old machinery, riding an out-classed 2001-spec NSR500 two-stroke against the new breed of 990cc four-strokes. He was one of only a few 500 riders prepared to take on the faster MotoGP four-strokes, scoring two podium finishes and eighth overall, his campaign interrupted midseason by another Assen injury. He now hungered for victory and channelled his frustration into determination. He would come back fighting in 2003.

As if planned by the gods themselves, the weapons for his continued fight were not far away. Just 30 minutes from his birthplace of Castel San Pietro stands the Borgo Panigale factory of Ducati where a small but incredibly talented team of young engineers had just finished developing the Ducati Desmosedici. The timing was perfect.

The new machine had undergone a great deal of development in a short period time as Ducati Corse technicians used every last piece of data collected throughout the years in which they had written World Superbike history but Ducati had not competed in Grand Prix for over 30 years. Could Loris really return to the fight with an Italian manufacturer a fraction of the size of the Japanese opposition? The world would not have to wait long for the answer.

Pre-season tests produced incredible results but both Loris and Ducati Corse kept their feet firmly on the ground before the start of the 2003 season, insisting that if they were able to challenge for a few podium positions by the end of the year they would have achieved their goal. The opening round in Suzuka was incredible. He launched the Ducati Desmosedici from the 4th row of the grid, took the lead on the first lap and rode an incredible race to 3rd place and a podium finish in the team’s debut MotoGP. Sadly, it was to be a dream result that Loris would take little pleasure from. Daijiro Kato had been seriously injured during the race. His injuries would later prove fatal.

It was with the utmost respect to Kato that the series continued. He was now missing from the paddock but would remain always in the hearts of everyone.

Typically, Loris constantly understated his own early performances and insisted that, because the Ducati MotoGP project was so young, the world should not expect too much. But he had thrilled the world with his debut ride and the world wanted more… it soon came. Just 5 races later, at the Catalunyan Grand Prix in Spain, he returned to the top step of the podium with the honour of giving Ducati its maiden victory in MotoGP. In 95 degrees of burning Spanish sunshine, Loris battled with fellow countryman Valentino Rossi for the entire race before taking victory in front of 95,000 excitable Spanish race fans. It was the first win in the premier category by an Italian rider on an Italian machine since Agostini had won the German GP on the MV in 1976.

His debut season with Ducati had seen him score 12 front row positions, 3 pole positions, 6 podium positions and 1 victory as well as recording the fastest ever top speed in grand prix racing at 206.5mph. The dream partnership was perfect, an Italian rider on an Italian machine. In their first year together, Loris had taken the Ducati MotoGP Team to success and the Ducati MotoGP Team had returned Loris to victory.

Bring on 2004…