Melandri announces retirement
Photos: Russell Colvin
After an international racing career spanning more than two decades, Marco Melandri will retire from full-time competition at the end of this year.
The 37-year-old made the announcement on 9 July (the eve of this year’s Imola WSBK round) but had decided back in March that this season would be his last.
“The decision to retire was a very difficult one for me to make”, Melandri said. “I'd been thinking about it for some time and, before the Imola race, I finally decided to call it a day at the end of the 2019 season.
“I'm still competitive and I think it's better to stop at this point, while I still enjoy racing, rather than waiting until the enjoyment and the results are more difficult to achieve.”
Currently racing for GRT Yamaha in the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship, Melandri added that, now the retirement decision’s been made, he’s motivated to push for more good results for Yamaha and the fledgling GRT team.
Early Star
Like most of his contemporaries, Melandri started racing at a young age; specifically six years old. As a junior, he starred at national level, winning the 1997 Italian 125cc championship and scoring his first wildcard entry to the 125cc World Championship at that year’s Brno round.
In 1998, Melandri joined the 125cc class full-time, riding for Benetton Matteoni Honda and picking up his first podium at Mugello. When he scored his first race win at Assen three rounds later, he became the youngest ever GP race winner at 15 years, 324 days (a record that stood for ten years), going on to finish third in the championship.
Second in the 1999 125cc World Championship (by a single point), Melandri moved to the 250cc class with Aprilia in 2000. Scoring four podiums that year, Melandri won his first 250cc race the following season (at the Sachsenring), then dominated in 2002, winning nine races to easily take that year’s 250cc World Championship.
MotoGP Challenges
A new class, a new bike and a new challenge came in 2003 when Melandri joined MotoGP with Fortuna Yamaha. The YZR-M1 proved a handful for the Italian, though, and he only greeted the podium twice in two seasons before moving to Movistar Honda in 2005. On the factory RC211V, Melandri won two races that year and secured seven other podium results to finish second in the championship behind Valentino Rossi.
That proved the high point of Melandri’s MotoGP career, despite three race wins in the 2006 season. In 2008, a disastrous MotoGP season on the Desmosedici GP for the factory Ducati team was followed by a similarly lacklustre 2009 on a satellite Kawasaki.
Switching to Supers… and Back
After spending the 2010 MotoGP season on a satellite Honda RC212V, Melandri moved to World Superbikes on a Yamaha in 2011 and enjoyed immediate success. A podium at the first round in Phillip Island was followed by his first WSBK race win a round later at Donington. After further race wins, podiums and top-five placings, Melandri finished his debut WSBK year second overall behind Carlos Checa.
When Yamaha ended their factory involvement in WSBK, Melandri signed with BMW Motorrad for 2012 and took six race wins (including BMW’s first since joining the category in 2009) to finish third in the championship, followed by fourth overall in 2013.
After finishing fourth again in 2014, this time with Aprilia, Melandri returned to MotoGP in 2015 with Aprilia Gresini, but ran only part of the season, finishing no better than 18th before he was replaced.
With no rides on offer for 2016, Melandri sat out that season before returning to World Superbikes in 2017 with Aruba.it Ducati. On the Panigale R, Melandri scored a string of podiums that season, but only one race win (Misano Race 2). In 2018, Melandri’s season started well, with two wins at Phillip Island, but no more followed and the Italian would be replaced by Alvaro Bautista for the 2019 season.
At the mid-season break of the 2019 WSBK season, Melandri sits in ninth place overall, with three podium finishes for the GRT Yamaha satellite team: one at Phillip Island and two at Jerez.
Aussie Impact
While Misano is his favourite track, Phillip Island has been good to Melandri, too; in fact, it’s his equal most successful track alongside Brno and the Sachsenring. Melandri’s also the only rider to win a race at Phillip Island in all three GP classes and WSBK.
In his first visit to Phillip Island in 1998, Melandri finished third, then won the following year. Melandri also won the 2002 250cc race at the Island, while few who were there will forget his MotoGP win in 2006. With victory in the bag, Melandri did a massive powerslide out of turn 12, saluting the cheering crowd as he roared to what would be his last MotoGP race win.
In WSBK, Melandri has a remarkable record at Phillip Island; achieving a win or podium each time he’s come to the circuit. That history started in 2011 with a third in Race 2, includes both race wins in 2018 and finished with a third place in this year’s opening race.
“From the first lap I did in 125, I was in love with this track,” Melandri said in an interview at Phillip Island earlier this year. “It (has) fast corners, it’s smooth… it’s something amazing.”
Open Future
As he nears the end of his international racing career, there’s no definite “what’s next” for Melandri. In past years, the Italian has expressed an interest in transferring his skills to car racing, but at the announcement of his retirement, Melandri said he’s merely looking to do “something different” with his life.
A return to two-wheel competition isn’t entirely off the cards, though, as Melandri has recently expressed an interest in the MotoE World Cup for electric race bikes which made its debut this past July.
