Marco Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli

Nation:	Italy
Motorcycle world championship
Start number:	58
statistics
Starts Victories Poles SR 148 14th 15th 9
World title:	1
World Cup points:	1255
Podiums:	31
According to class (es): 125 cc class First start: Czech Grand Prix 2002 Last start: 2005 Valencia Grand Prix Constructors 2002-2005  Aprilia World Cup balance World Cup fifth ( 2005 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 50 2 3 1 World Cup points: 290 Podiums: 7th 250 cc class First start: 2006 Spanish Grand Prix Last start: 2009 Valencia Grand Prix Constructors 2006-2009  Gilera World Cup balance World Champion ( 2008 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 64 12 10 8th World Cup points: 701 Podiums: 22nd MotoGP class First start: 2010 Qatar Grand Prix Last start: 2011 Australian Grand Prix Constructors 2010-2011  Honda World Cup balance World Cup sixth ( 2011 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 34 - 2 - World Cup points: 264 Podiums: 2

Simoncelli after winning the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix

Marco Simoncelli 2010 on a MotoGP Honda

Marco Simoncelli (born January 20, 1987 in Cattolica , † October 23, 2011 in Sepang , Malaysia ) was an Italian motorcycle racer .

Simoncelli won a total of 14 Grands Prix in his career and was world champion in the 250 cc class in 2008 . One of his trademarks was the number 58, and Simoncelli was nicknamed SuperSic. He died on October 23, 2011 in a racing accident at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia at the age of 24.

Career

Beginnings

Marco Simoncelli was born in Cattolica, but spent his childhood in Coriano . Simoncelli started riding pocket bikes in his hometown at the age of seven . In 1999 and 2000 he won the Italian championship and in 2000 became vice European champion. A year later he took part in the Honda Trophy , where he took two podiums, as well as in the Italian 125 cc championship.

125 cc World Championship

In 2002 Simoncelli won the 125cc European Championship . His good performance earned him a wild card for the motorcycle world championship of the 2002 season in the 125cc class where he at Aprilia at the Grand Prix of Czech Republic in Brno debuted and drove a total of six races in his first season.

He took part in the 2003 motorcycle world championship , again on Aprilia, from the beginning of the season and achieved points six times, including fourth place at the Valencia Grand Prix as the best result of the season .

In the 2004 motorcycle world championship , Simoncelli celebrated his first GP victory at the rainy Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, alongside his first pole position , and stood out as a rain specialist. This strength earned him his second pole position at the Czech Grand Prix. Despite his first win, the 2004 season remained a mixed season for Simoncelli with several falls.

Simoncelli was able to confirm his previous achievements in the 2005 Motorcycle World Championship with another victory at the Spanish Grand Prix and a total of five other podium places. Nevertheless, by the middle of the season he had no prospect of winning the title and ended the season in fifth place with 177 points. This not least because of its size of 1.78 meters, which made handling the 125 Aprilia much more difficult for him, which prompted him to switch to the 250 cc class for the following season.

250 cc world championship

In the 2006 motorcycle world championship , Simoncelli drove for Gilera in the Squadra Corse Metis Gilera team . Chief engineer Rossano Brazzi, who had previously worked for various world champions such as Valentino Rossi and Marco Melandri, also worked there. However, Brazzi dropped out after a few races due to illness, which caused the team to lose track technically. Simoncelli did not reach a podium in his first season in the 250 cc class and finished the season in eighth place with 92 points.

In the 2007 season, Gilera no longer let him ride the official works motorcycle, but an Aprilia LE , which was technically supervised by Aligi Deganello. The season turned out to be a dry spell without a podium, but with various progress on a driving level. Simoncelli finished the season in tenth place with 97 points.

In the following season, 2008, Simoncelli drove again on the unofficial Aprilia LE and achieved two wins, three second places and one third place in the first nine races. Then he received an improved factory machine and achieved four more wins and two third places in the following races. With third place at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang , Simoncelli secured the 2008 world title on October 19.

MotoGP class

Marco Simoncelli since the 2010 season for the team San Carlo Honda Gresini by Fausto Gresini in the MotoGP class. His teammate in 2010 was compatriot Marco Melandri . In the 2011 season he started together with Hiroshi Aoyama .

Deadly accident

At the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang 2011 Marco Simoncelli was killed. On lap two of the race, which started at 4 p.m. local time, Simoncelli slipped the front wheel in Turn 11 , a fast right-hand bend . He tried to put pressure on the asphalt with his right knee to stop the motorcycle from sliding and then to straighten it up again. As a result, he steered the motorcycle towards the inside of the curve. The following Álvaro Bautista could still move inwards, but Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi could not. Edwards Yamaha hit Simoncelli with full force in the neck area. As a result, the chinstrap ( ECE regulation 22/4 point 7.10.5. Prescribes a force of at least 3 kN which the chinstrap must withstand) in the helmet shell was torn off and the agv helmet levered off. Immediately afterwards Rossi drove over the man lying on the ground.

When the seriously injured man was being transported to the ambulance standing behind the guardrail, the paramedics fell with the stretcher. Something similar had happened a year earlier when the fatally injured Japanese Moto2 rider Shōya Tomizawa was rescued from the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano. Simoncelli died at 4:56 p.m. (local time) of severe head, neck and chest injuries.

The race was interrupted on the second lap, not restarted and not counted. On the Thursday after the race, Marco Simoncelli was buried in Coriano . After Daijirō Katō ( Suzuka 2003) team boss Fausto Gresini lost the second driver of his team.

Awards

In 2013 a memorial was inaugurated in Simoncelli's hometown of Coriano. The monument is shaped like a motorcycle exhaust and emits flames up to three meters long for 58 seconds every Sunday evening. The idea for this came from Lino Dainese, the president of the clothing supplier Dainese, who was also a close friend of Simoncellis. The latter commissioned the artist Arcangelo Sassolino to make the monument. There is also a Marco Simoncelli Foundation.

In 2012 the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Misano Adriatico was named after Simoncelli.

On February 3, 2014, the FIM announced that Simoncelli would be inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame at the Grand Prix of Italy in Mugello .

In honor of Marco Simoncelli, it was announced by Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta on the Thursday before the 2016 San Marino Grand Prix that the starting number 58 in MotoGP will no longer be awarded. Unless the Simoncelli family decides that a driver can use this number.

Marco's father Paolo has been racing his own Moto3 team called SIC58 Squadra Corse since 2017 .

statistics

title

• 1999 - Italian pocket bike champion
• 2000 - Italian pocket bike champion and pocket bike vice-European champion
• 2002 - 125 cc European Champion on Aprilia
• 2008 - 250 cm³ world champion on Gilera
• 2008 - Collare d'Oro al Merito Sportivo (Italian Sports Merit Order )
• 2014 - Posthumous induction into the MotoGP Hall of Fame
• 14 Grand Prix victories

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	Nice Race laps	Points	position
2002	125 cc	CWF Matteoni Racing	Aprilia	6th	-	-	-	-	-	3	33.
2003	125 cc	Matteoni Racing	Aprilia	15th	-	-	-	-	-	31	21st
2004	125 cc	Smoke bravo	Aprilia	13	1	-	-	2	-	79	11.
2005	125 cc	Nocable.It Race	Aprilia	16	1	1	4th	1	1	177	5.
2006	250 cc	Squadra Corse Metis Gilera	Gilera	16	-	-	-	-	-	92	10.
2007	250 cc	Squadra Corse Metis Gilera	Gilera	17th	-	-	-	-	-	97	10.
2008	250 cc	Metis Gilera	Gilera	16	6th	3	3	7th	4th	281	World Champion
2009	250 cc	Metis Gilera	Gilera	15th	6th	1	3	3	4th	231	3.
2010	MotoGP	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda RC212V	18th	-	-	-	-	-	125	8th.
2011	MotoGP	Gresini Racing	Honda RC212V	16	-	1	1	2	-	139	6th
total				148	14th	6th	11	15th	9	1255

In the Superbike World Championship

season	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	Nice Race laps	Points	position
2009	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia RSV4	2	-	-	1	-	-	16	25th
total			2	-	-	1	-	-	16

Web links

Commons : Marco Simoncelli  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Marco Simoncelli (Italian)
• Marco Simoncelli on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Marco Simoncelli on the official website of the Superbike and Supersport World Championship
• Marco Simoncelli. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on December 2, 2018 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marco Simoncelli succumbed to his injuries in Malaysia . Retrieved November 6, 2013
2. ^ Roman Wittemeier: Confirmed: Melandri 2010 again at Gresini. www.motorsport-total.com, August 15, 2009, accessed on August 16, 2009 . 
3. ↑ unece.org: Regulation No. 22 (accessed November 1, 2011; PDF file; 1.07 MB)
4. ↑ "Paramedics dropped Marco Simoncelli" (welt.de on October 27, 2011)
5. ↑ blick.ch: Tragic mishap after the accident - paramedics dropped Tomizawa , accessed on July 10, 2019
6. ^ Friedemann Kirn: Ciao Marco in: MOTORRAD 23/2011, pp. 120 ff
7. ^ "Serious accident by Simoncelli - race canceled" (motorsport-aktuell.com on October 23, 2011)
8. ↑ MOTORRAD 23/2011, page 122
9. ↑ Marco Simoncelli Monument unveiled in Coriano . Retrieved November 6, 2013
10. ↑ Flaming Monument Erected To Honor Marco Simoncelli . Retrieved November 6, 2013
11. ↑ Motorsport-aktuell dated September 17, 2013, p. 30.
12. ↑ Simoncelli joins the MotoGP ™ Legend. www.motogp.com, February 3, 2014, accessed February 3, 2014 . 
13. ↑ Simoncelli who had an accident becomes MotoGP legend. (No longer available online.) Www.handelsblatt.com, February 3, 2014, archived from the original on February 23, 2014 ; Retrieved February 3, 2014 . 
14. ↑ Sharleena Wirsing: In honor of Marco Simoncelli: No more number 58. In: speedweek.com. September 8, 2016, accessed September 8, 2016 .