Antonio Cairoli, the iconic nine-time World Champion, made a last-minute and surprise 2025 MXGP appearance aboard the all-new Ducati MX machine to the delight of the Italian fans. And Cairoli showed he still had the speed to run within the top ten during the weekend at nearly 40!
After a thrilling weekend in Trentino, we caught up with Tony to talk about the race, the bike, and what it feels like to be back racing a Ducati in front of his home fans as well as get more on his US motocross plans later this summer.
This was a bit unexpected, but your speed was good, did you enjoy the weekend?
Yeah, it was very, very unexpected. My goal, my preparation and everything was to start to be ready at the end of June, which was my goal to do some racing at the end of June, the beginning of July. So this one was really unexpected, I really had no motos done until today, so the first 30 minutes moto was today, 30 plus two, since more or less one year, let’s say, because after Arnhem, in Arnhem also, I didn’t do the motos because we had troubles on Sunday, but both motos were not good.
So yeah, I didn’t know what to expect actually, I just wanted to race because I love to race here and the atmosphere and bring a lot of fans on the track. For Ducati, it was great. We had good jumps off the gate, good starts until yesterday, unfortunately, where we had this problem with the wheel, which makes a disaster weekend for me because completely starting from outside here, it’s impossible to pass on this track more or less. So even if you’re not fit, it’s even worse.
So yeah, in the end, it was good. I mean, no crashes, first moto, a little tip over when I was around eight, nine place. And then I ended up 13, so I was happy, the speed was there, same speed as Jeremy. So quite nice, quite nice to be back in racing. Second moto, I really didn’t have anything more left in my tank.
Already at the start, I was, ‘ahh, this is going to be tough.’ The track, I never saw Arco so rough as this year, so it didn’t help at all. But to be honest, I really enjoy it. I mean, we get some points, we get some things to test on the bike, different than Jeremy and Mattia. So I hope I can help also with this kind of stuff. And yeah, let’s see when we are back on the gate again this year.
On your start, on the first moto from the outside, it was incredible.
I thought, ‘I’m going to have one of my (great) starts here because otherwise it’s a problem.’ And actually we pull out a really good jump of the gate and then in the corner, I just go flat out inside.
They pushed me a bit wide, so I was around seven, nine, seven and ninth place. Then I made the pass, I was eighth, riding okay in front of good guys, let’s say. And then I had the tip over in the corner where I had a huge arm pump – already after 15 minutes. But then, yeah, I sat around 12th, 13th places and I was happy with that, let’s say.
Did you feel good on the bike? Because your pace was probably five to ten. Your raw speed, the first five time out of those qualities on that first moto. Were you expecting to be that quick with no preparation?
No, really, I was surprised because really I had no zero preparation. Until two weeks ago, I was testing still the stock bike that has to be on sale, so we were doing some major finalizing, some things on the bike. Basically, we did only one lap in, one lap out, one lap in. No speed at all. Only this week I started working again on some lap times because it was a long time I didn’t have to push the limits, let’s say.
So I was quite surprised with the outcome of this weekend. Mostly about all the fans coming over to see me. I was really happy about it and hopefully for the motocross it’s also a good thing when there’s a lot of people.
And to have that around Gajser corner, Cairoli corner maybe this weekend! Did it feel just cool to have all that noise and the smoke bombs and everything for you again?
Yeah, yeah. It feels great. I cannot thank my fans enough. They pushed me through the track a lot and I was happy and that’s why I accept the race. I don’t think nobody will accept the race with no preparation, nothing, basically. I jumped on the Matthias bike like two weeks ago. I didn’t ride the factory bike, let’s say, since November last year, so I didn’t know what to expect about the bike. Actually, more or less in two weeks, we set up the bike a bit for me and I was quite pumped about it.
Is this the only race you’re doing or are you planning a couple more?
Actually, my plan was to do more racing. We didn’t exactly plan which or what, but around some time I want to race more races, let’s say maybe another two or three rounds. Maybe the US if we can find a good compromise because the bike needs to be on sale first there, otherwise you cannot race. So the bike around the end of June will be in the market in the US. After that, we can see which race we can maybe attend and maybe some more and one more MXGP, I would love to do Matterley Basin, it’s one of my favorite tracks. At the moment, we have no real plan, but I will do more racing, yeah.
At this age, to ride for Ducati in Italy and then get to race in America for Ducati potentially later in the summer, did you ever imagine you’d be able to have this experience once you retired a couple of years ago?
Yeah, no, no, for sure not. I’m really grateful. I can still ride at this level at 40 years old. I really surprise myself every time because actually, I don’t know what I can do if I start training as I did before. But anyway, it’s not the time anymore. I just enjoy racing now and just the family, enjoy the family, enjoy the racing, not taking any risk and just riding to improve the bike and to make some fun.
Is the bike that you rode in Arnhem last year now today a lot better than what it was then?
It’s a completely different bike. Now, it’s very rideable before and the sand was almost impossible to ride, so I was really, really struggling a lot. We had some prototype parts on and we didn’t really ride sand with that before, so we just go there because I really want to see which direction to take with the bike. On one side it was good because I struggled a lot, but I understand which direction will go with the bike and after that, I take a good direction and now today, it was a very competitive bike. I think if you have a fit rider, a fast rider, you can easily be on the podium today.
Thank you, good seeing you riding again.
