GP Misano: have you ever heard the roar of the MotoGP?

It’s not so much the noise, it’s the vibration that remains inside you of that VOOOOM. Especially when you hear it for the first time and looking around you see that those who grew up with that VOOM and can no longer do without it, have earplugs in their ears. They are experts. We were together with RedBull at the Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini, inside the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. A weekend dedicated to sport, wheels, engines and above all passion. The genuine one that comes out straight and powerful in the eyes of the athletes we met between one race and another, starting from Moto3, passing through Moto2 and ending with MotoGP.

If you have never entered the paddocks, which in motorcycle and car jargon is the area where all the riders’ teams are based, the first thing you need to know is that it will seem like you are entering a small village dedicated to sport. In the paddocks there is a world: there are the parents of the drivers who travel on scooters, there are the fans who stand in front of the trucks waiting for an autograph when things go well, a quick glance and a smile in most cases. Because the drivers are busy concentrating and working on the race almost all the time. Then there are all the workers, hundreds of them: men and women of all ages who stand out for the t-shirt and hat they wear, linked to the team they work for. It is a riot of colors, the most obvious ones are: blue and orange for KTM Red Bull, red for Ducati, fluorescent yellow for Valentino Rossi’s VR46. Not a small detail: all the buildings that make up the citadel can be dismantled and reassembled. In the case for example of Red Bull Energy Station, a wooden building with huge windows that welcomes athletes, guests and all the people who gravitate around the RedBull world, there are around 100 specialized people who at every race, in any place in the world, in two days compose and recompose, as a huge Lego, the RedBull house.

It is here that we meet the drivers and athletes protagonists of the weekend of the Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera. The day before the race we meet Tony Arbolino, 20 years old, second in the Moto2 championship, is playing for the title victory. At Misano he placed fourth. When he arrives, like most pilots, he is simply a twenty-year-old boy, with eyes alight with passion. Then he starts talking and in an instant he is a professional driver, a talent, a champion. With very clear ideas. «My life now is just motorbikes», he tells us with a strong Spanish accent inherited from his move to Barcelona to train better.

His life was in motion right from the start. «Since I was five years old and I came here to Misano in a camper with my dad. Every Friday we left after school, arrived here in Romagna and I trained until Sunday. Then in the evening we left for Milan and on Monday there was school. But I almost never did my homework. It was hard”. The first victory was in Pomposa. «I was eight years old and I competed with children of different ages. I already liked the competition and I especially remember the glory of that race, because I won it. I did it thanks to instinct, which I don’t know where it comes from but it helps me a lot.” Even when the tiburon (this is the nickname given to the rider) gets on the motorbike (after always dressing using his left hand, as per his ritual) and gets into the starting grid. «It’s strange but the best word to describe what I feel when I get on the motorbike is slow motion. When I prepare for the race I experience everything as if it were slower, in slow motion. And it’s as if I see a bit of everything before, it seems philosophical but I’m not at all.”

It’s not far away Filippo Farioli, 18 years old and a determination that earned him a place on the starting grid for the 2023 Moto3 World Championship, riding the Red Bull KTM Tech3. There where when you see yourself again you think above all about «a smiley face in love». This is how Filippo Farioli, son and grandson of the artist, describes himself when he imagines himself on top of his motorbike. «This is a circuit that I am very attached to because it is here that I achieved my first victory last year». As for other riders, Filippo Farioli’s was a start in motocross. «I learned to ride a motorbike before I learned to ride a bicycle. The first time I was 4 years old.” Now what keeps him glued to his motorbike is boundless love. «I like everything about the bike: the noise it makes, the anticipation of the race, the circuit. When I get on the track I isolate myself from everything else. That’s where the beauty begins.” Plan B? «Definitely always linked to the motorbike because I am very attached to the sensation I feel when I ride it, to the fact that your body moves together with it and how you move has a huge impact on how the motorbike goes».

A paso doble that enchants (and which often transforms into AC/DC pieces in the headphones of pilots). The faces, the flags and the billboards that filled every corner of the circuit over the Misano weekend tell it. From the RedBull terrace the roar of the start reached straight under the skin. To stay there during all 27 laps of the race finally won by the Spaniard Jorge Martin followed by the Italian double podium with Marco Bezzecchi and Francesco (Checco) Bagnaia.

A fan is also cheering Andrea Adamo, 20 years old, Italian motocross star, now part of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. «I’m a huge MotoGP fan, at home the television is always set to the MotoGP channel. Being here today is a great gift”, tells us the pilot originally from Erice in Sicily, home of champion Tony Cairoli, with whom Adamo finds himself working side by side today. «Being in KTM is a dream come true for me. Tony Cairoli has always been my idol and being able to work with him today, joke around, go out for pizza is a great honor for me.” Like most pilots, Adamo never contemplated a plan B, because the main goal was to make it. «I wanted to race for this team and I succeeded. I would never have done it without the support of my family.” A support that started from afar, when at 4 years old, Andrea received his first motorbike.

«It started for fun, then from year to year we saw that being on a motorbike was good for me, it was something I was good at». Thus began the sacrifices, as for many families who follow their children into the world of motorcycling. They stand out well here in Misano. The ones who show up the most are the dads, the more relaxed ones also stop to talk to the enthusiasts, the more shy ones walk at a brisk pace. Behind the scenes there is also Valentino Rossi, who appears in the distance pushing his Giulietta on a tiny motorbike. «We achieved this result together. Me and my family” concludes Andrea Adamo. Words that have the features of a family. The one in Misano, where it is impossible not to remember the curls and the smile of Marco Simoncelli, to which the circuit was dedicated, is everywhere. And he knows about passion, the real one.