Foggia’s Clear Target: the 2022 Moto3 Crown
Lusail International CircuitDennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) has a clear target for 2022: to better his runner-up finish in last year’s Moto3 World Championship.
The 21-year-old Italian had a superb 2021, winning five races and fighting for the title until the last lap of the penultimate race, when he was knocked down by a rival.
This will be his third season with Leopard Racing, so Foggia and his crew will use all the lessons learned in their first two years together to maximise their performance throughout the 21-race championship, the longest-ever in Grand Prix racing.
Already Foggia and his 2022 NSF250RW are looking very strong. They topped last month’s three-day pre-season test at Portimao, Portugal, leading a one-two domination by NSF250RW riders.
Second-fastest in those tests was Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW), starting his second season with the Italian team.
Foggia’s new team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) was the next-best Honda rider, placed a close sixth. Suzuki has moved over from the Sic 58 Squadra Corse squad, which also uses Honda machinery. The 24-year-old from Chiba won two Moto3 races in 2019 and 2020, but none last year, so he hopes that this new project will return him to the top step of the podium on a regular basis.
The Honda Team Asia Moto3 squad has an all-new outfit for the new season: Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) and Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW).
Furusato’s arrival in World Championship is much anticipated, because last year he won all seven rounds of the Honda-backed IDEMITSU Asia Talent Cup. However, the 16-year-old Japanese rider will have to wait a few more weeks to make his Grand prix debut, after breaking the talus bone in his right foot during private tests at Jerez last month.
Therefore 18-year-old Indonesian Aji will be the team’s lone representative in Qatar this weekend. Aji contested the last three seasons of the CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship and made his GP debut at last October’s Emilia-Romagna GP, finishing in 21st place.
Finally we start racing again. We go into this new season feeling good after some very positive results in pre-season testing. The new bike works really well and I now feel so close to my team in the garage, so I expect we can do great things this year. The racing will of course be a big battle, so it will be important to be fast and also very clever
The long wait is over: I feel ready for the Qatar GP, with good feelings from the Portimao test. The atmosphere in the Snipers Team is excellent and very positive. All we have to do is continue to work and do our best, starting this Sunday. See you on track!
This season is a new start for me with a new team and so I am more excited than ever to start racing and see what we can do. I already feel at home in the Leopard Racing garage. My crew did a great job in pre-season testing, so now the aim is to turn that speed into results
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I am really looking forward to my first Grand Prix race in Qatar. The last time I raced there was in 2018, when I raced in the Asia Talent Cup. I have a nice memory of that, because it was my first race in the series and I finished second. It’s always been one of my dreams to race in the World Championships and now it’s come true. Losail is a corner-speed circuit and I like this kind of riding. I will keep pushing and keep learning, always progressing in every session. I am so excited for my first World Championship race – I can’t wait!