Despite only being 21 years old, Mattia Guadagnini last season made the step up to race the MXGP World Championship after starting his season in MX2 – but the plan was always to race MXGP in 2023 regardless.
This year was his first full season in the MXGP World Championship and the young Italian had been doing well up until an injury in France but he did return in Turkey and was directly at the front despite the very high level. Sadly after picking up another injury at his home GP in Maggiora he will miss the MXoN at Ernee so we won’t see him back until the 2024 season.
Guadagnini has been with the de Carli Factory GasGas team alongside Jorge Prado and Simon Längenfelder but things are thought to be about to change for him in upcoming year.
We believe that Austria want an MXGP rider for each of their three brands – KTM, GasGas and Husqvarna and the latter haven’t had an MXGP rider this year after Standing Construct lost their factory support.
It means that Guadagnini is expected to sign with the Nestaan Husqvarna team to become their MXGP rider under the awning with Kay de Wolf and Lucas Coenen in MX2 – a very strong team for the 2024 season. The move will see Guadagnini move out of Italy and be based in Belgium.
After a year without having an MXGP rider, it will be nice to see Husqvarna back in the premier class once again and with Guadagnini they have a rider who has a very bright future in the sport.
Image: MXGP/Infront Moto Racing