With no woman having ever competed in a full season of MotoGP or Moto2 – Gina Bovaird remains the only woman to have ever started a premier class race, albeit in the largely boycotted 1982 500cc French Grand Prix - and with just a handful having ridden in Moto3, top tier motorcycle racing can be a difficult environment for women to break into. There are also few women working as mechanics or engineers in the paddock – a common problem across motorsport as a whole.
But Aurora Angelucci, founder of Angeluss Sports Management and team manager of Moto3 outfit MTA Racing, is hoping to change that. Having founded Angeluss aged just 20, she took over at MTA at the start of this season, and is one of just two female team bosses in the paddock alongside Gresini Racing owner and team principal Nadia Padovani.
Having grown up in Rome, Angelucci's love of motorcycle racing was passed down by her father, and was truly ignited by a visit to Misano as a child. But as she grew up, she noticed an absence of women among both riders and technical figures, sparking the start of Angeluss in 2020, which manages young womens’ racing careers.
Though Angelucci’s passion lay in MotoGP, she was forced to look elsewhere for inspiration because she “didn’t have an example” in motorcycle racing. But she persevered, and the beginning of 2022 saw Angeluss become MTA Racing’s title sponsor, before Angelucci took over as team manager from previous boss Alessandro Tonucci at the start of this season.
Through her work with both her own business and managing MTA Racing, Angelucci hopes to help develop talent and give women opportunities inside the garage, working as mechanics and engineers in the top tiers of motorcycle racing.
“I started to follow MotoGP because my father was a fan and I’ve loved it since I was a child, but I really loved it when decided to take me to the circuit in Misano to watch it live,” the 21-year-old tells Autosport at that same circuit. “This started my love for this part. In the following years, I realised there weren’t really women working in the technical side or as a rider. Often there are women, but working in PR or social media. So my idea was to bring more women in as technical figures or riders.
Source: Autosport