The MotoGP title contender with his own design studio: 'I get most artistic ideas on the grid!'

The exciting, darting, fluorescent yellow Ducati that finished just 0.2sec from a fourth podium finish of 2026 MotoGP in Brno belonged to Fabio Di Giannantonio. The 27-year-old from Rome is currently third in the MotoGP world championship and, as in most of his four-and-a-half seasons of premier class racing, he is ascending from ‘under the radar’ status to subvert expectations.

‘Diggia’ boasts strong MotoGP attributes: he’s Italian, riding for Valentino Rossi’s Italian team with the dominant Italian manufacturer. It’s both a privileged platform and one of pressure and, crucially, it brings billing he’s earned through his own effort. Di Giannantonio was a low-key MotoGP rookie in 2022 as he continued a strong association with the Gresini satellite team from Moto3 and Moto2 to earn a berth on a year-old Ducati. Diggia toiled in his adaptation and was 20th in the championship with just one top 10 result as other Ducatis occupied five positions from first to ninth.

Only 22 at the time, Di Giannantonio was on the MotoGP grid with modest merit. He is one of 14 riders from the current 22 to have won grands prix in both Moto3 and Moto2 and his closest championship charge came in Moto3 in 2018 when he was runner-up. In 2023, his second MotoGP term, he completed the set with victory in Qatar. That weekend at the Lusail International Circuit, Di Giannantonio had arrived with the buoyancy of a maiden MotoGP podium finish the previous race in Australia. Phillip Island had been round 16 of 19 and, still without a 2024 contract, he was fighting for his future in the category. In Qatar, he told a few assembled media that he was “going for the win”.

There were several raised eyebrows in the media centre at this unlikely claim. On Sunday, Di Giannantonio romped free from the field to take the chequered flag for one of the most surprising wins that season. Rossi and the VR46 outfit made a late decision to bring him into the squad for the following season and his development would continue.

There were hiccups. He missed the last two rounds of 2024 for an operation on his left shoulder. Then a crash during 2025 pre-season testing led to a broken collarbone and meant he lost valuable track and pitbox time. He progressed through 2025, however, and with three rostrum appearances had sailed from 12th in MotoGP in 2023 to sixth in the standings. He was again rewarded with a latest-spec Ducati for 2026, where a fit and flying No49 has been delivering the goods and has been Ducati’s steadying presence between Marc Márquez’s injury concerns and Pecco Bagnaia’s set-up travails.

Softly spoken, good-looking, stylish, smiling and outwardly friendly, Diggia ticks a lot of boxes for a modern sports athlete. He does not have the sporting CV of some of his peers (he’s one of six riders in the field not to have a world championship), even though he’s fast enough and good enough to have totalled nearly 11 years of experience in grand prix racing. He is a firm example of how some riders need time and the right opportunity and circumstances (no matter how tight or ‘last-minute’ they might be) to find their way. Not every successful motorcycle racer can be ‘devourers’ like Marc Márquez, teenage starlets like Pedro Acosta or Diogo Moreira or serial winners. Some can sprint up to the peak of the mountain (and therefore usually arrive quicker to the ‘dip’ on the other side), others pick their way up at a more considered rate.

Importantly, Diggia is smart enough to know that his dedication to MotoGP should filter through multiple strands, and each one must be excellent. Such as: the ability to race a motorcycle at 230mph, the analytical mind to progress, the confidence and conviction within a complex psychology (just look at the way he was involved in Alex Márquez’s frightening Catalan Grand Prix accident and how he was then able to restart and defy a broken left finger to win that race in May), the personality to harness the best of a team and navigating the politics (especially fraught for Italian and Spanish competitors).

As well as all this, he also cares a lot about his perception and his brand. He worked in the past with the American cultural brand agency ‘Race Service’ and his official Instagram account bio has a reference to ‘Wolf Studio’. Clicking on the link takes you to Diggia’s side project of design, imagery and art and how that filters into his public persona. It’s not quite your atypical MotoGP rider’s bland collection of training and action photos and videos.

“When I was young, with my father, we were doing a lot of artwork with bikes and helmets. Even with my grandfather, so I grew up with this,” he explains across a table in the bright VR46 hospitality in Brno. “It was a fantasy about how I could look if I was a champion. It became a passion and I started to work with software like Illustrator. Then, of course, you get into a position where you can work with some very creative professionals and artists. Sometimes I found that I had an idea…but I could not really express what I wanted to the designer, so I started to do it by myself and it became even more of a hobby. ‘Wolf Studio’ is not a company but a project around race things. It does not make money and does not work on commission but it’s for ideas and some requests from riders and friends. It’s a design studio with an artistic feel.”

“In Art and Technical Drawing at school, I was like ‘A-A’ or ’10-10’. For the rest…” he laughs. “I was working on it!”

Di Giannantonio is creative on the motorcycle when it comes to his line choices and strategies (even though the opening phases of races appear to be one of the last remaining vulnerabilities) but it also something that defines him generally. “I get a lot of ideas, and when I have a moment, then I try to develop something with my laptop or with a sketch,” he says. His girlfriend, Jai, is a DJ, so he is surrounded by an experimental energy. “The moment where I tend to have the most ideas is on the grid!” he smiles at the absurdity. “F**k, it’s then super-difficult to remember everything…and I don’t want to take a notebook there with me! When I am the most focused, then it is where I am the most artistic and where ideas come.”

There must be some weird psychology at play, and the admission hints at a racer that is able to compartmentalise. “I’m good at being ‘on-off’,” he states. “When I put the leathers on in my [paddock] office, I’m not that serious and I like talking and joking with people…but by the time I have walked down the stairs I am like [clicks fingers] ready to go.”

His imagination is slightly offset by the rigidity of his day job and the ‘formula’ of MotoGP riding dynamics with tyre management and the narrow operating window of the Michelins. “This is not the sport to play, it’s not like motocross,” he ruminates. “You are much more ‘on the rails’ here and you have to do certain things to be fast. Still, I think you can see a lot of little differences between riders. If you watch me then it always looks like I’m relaxed on the bike; it’s like I’m going to the bar to have an Aperol Spritz with friends, just a bit faster.

“I don’t like to see myself because I know I’m not super ‘show’ with the riding style…” he quickly adds. “But at the same time, I like how I can flow and be precise. I think this is also a talent.”

He does not lack for style off the bike. Whether it’s some adventurous fashion, a predilection for watches or his dream car (a Porsche 911 GTS, which he diplomatically obscures on his social media channels on account of VR46’s sponsorship tie-in with Cupra), Di Giannantonio is acutely aware of personal branding. In this aspect, he’s more advanced than most in MotoGP.

“I have this feeling and mentality, to be ‘Fabio Di Giannantonio’ or ‘Diggia’ away from racing, as if to say: ‘this is me’,” he says. “I started to work on it when I was in Moto3 and a bit more professionally in Moto2 but I spend a lot of money – or make an investment of time and energy – to bring ‘Diggia’ away from just the guy who might be P1, P3 or P5 on a Sunday. In the beginning I was not seeing any kind of result but now – and, for sure, race results help a bit – people recognise why I make things [projects] and ‘Diggia’ has become a bit more recognisable, especially with brands and sponsors or partners. I’m more recognisable for what I do off track as well. I express myself in an artistic way or the way I do interviews. It’s like a mini-passion. It brings a message that I want to be myself. I know I must fit into this world [with obligations] but I want to do it my way.”

The speculation in time and availability for different media opportunities or formalities is another way in which Di Giannantonio is opening himself up, even if it can be draining around the 22-date calendar with tests and other events. “Yes, but I see those as small ‘wins’, especially if it is something I like to do,” he counters. “I don’t mind pushing to take those ‘wins’ and what it does for me mentally. Good things for the mind.”