Fabio Di Giannantonio managed to continue in MotoGP in 2024 with the Mooney VR46 Racing Team, but he was close to losing his spot in the lineup when Gresini chose Marc Márquez for his spot – in an announcement that came in mid-October. Diego Tavano, #49’s manager, said that even before, Di Giannantonio was «on a tightrope».
In an interview with MOW Mag, the manager revealed that for over a month, the rider had to prove he deserved his place: ‘When they changed the option from the end of July to the beginning of September, we didn’t like it much, but we understood that we were hanging by the famous thread. So, it was since the beginning of August that we’ve been fighting to show that we deserve a place. Márquez’s announcement was an end in itself, we regretted it because the project could have gone forward, that’s what we said together with Fausto [Gresini]’.
Despite the disappointing outcome, Tavano ensured that Gresini’s decision was understandable: ‘So I confronted Nadia [Padovani, owner]: she also regretted it, but the advent of a rider of such depth from a business and sporting point of view moves a lot and I understand her. On one side, you have the young one you’ve nurtured, on the other side, a champion of enormous caliber. Okay, we parted ways very well with the team, and in the end, we understood, albeit with a bitter taste in our mouths’.