In the Aragón motorcycle GP, they make history

A modest but ambitious team will make history this weekend of racing at the Alcañiz circuit.

Led by María Herrera, one of the women who has come the furthest in the world, the Angeluss MTA will become the first all-female team to compete in the world championship.

It is still a needle in the haystack.

“This is a project to give visibility to women in motorcycling.

There are more and more, but we are still few ”, the 26-year-old pilot from Oropesa explains to EL PAÍS.

It is a feminine and young project, with a future, promoted by Aurora Angelucci, only 20 years old.

This entrepreneur founded a representation agency that, in reality, intends to act as an accelerator for female talent.

“The reception has been very good, we feel sheltered here.

Our project is to enter the World Championships full time, and not just Moto3.

We want to reach MotoGP with a team made up entirely of women”, the team's sports director also tells this newspaper.

It is a colossal challenge, since in 73 years of history only 22 women have played a World Cup event.

“Obviously it is not an easy goal, but our idea is long-term, to plant a seed.

It's about breaking down stereotypes and breaking down the gender barrier."

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In association with the MTA Team, and through an invitation to the race in Aragón, Angelucci has begun to give visibility to a project that had gone largely unnoticed until now, despite the sponsorship agreements with the Moto3 squad and with the WithU RNF Yamaha in MotoGP.

The drivers and technicians of the premier class, in fact, shared impressions and details about the track with the new team in the usual ride on Thursday morning.

These synergies and training opportunities are a significant step, although the company invests efforts, above all, at the training level, supporting runners of the Women's European Cup: "This route differs a bit from my idea on the subject, since I think that the women should compete in a mixed championship, where they could train even better.

There are very talented girls and we will do everything to take them to the big races.”

The Moto3 team for Motorland did not exist a few weeks ago, but talent was sought in a hurry and a group was put together with which Herrera feels comfortable and motivated: “It is a new team, we have only just met, but I am very proud of the work we are doing and I only think about doing well on the track, because I am like that and because my teammates deserve it”.

Lidia Cerezuela, technical manager and telemetrist, started in this world inspired by an aeronautical engineer who worked in Formula 1;

Adriana Gallardo Montes, first mechanic, fell in love with motorcycles at the age of 12 and was fascinated by mechanics;

Nekane Muros Salom, second mechanic, started in a garage with her father fixing bicycles;

Lara Hortences, a wheel mechanic, visited the paddock one day and fell in love with the ins and outs of racing.

They complete this pioneering line-up in Aragón, which only had a previous private test to get down to business and prepare for its historic participation.

“The goal of this weekend is to show that we can be competitive, that we can do the same job as everyone else.

Obviously, you can't expect a great result from one day to the next, but you can show that we are trained and prepared to compete at the highest level”, assures Herrera.

Two weeks ago, he finished his fourth season in the MotoE World Championship, the electric category of the championship, in 17th position.

In the past, she has raised a lot of interest after becoming the first female winner in the FIM CEV, one of the most prestigious training categories.

There she fought face to face with talents like Fabio Quartararo, who in fact snatched the title from her in the last race.

The woman from Toledo, the third woman with the most points in history, will coincide again with Ana Carrasco, BOÉ SKX rider, with whom she already wrote a chapter to remember sharing the grid in 2015 full time.

Both pioneers continue to believe that there are still too few girls in the quarry.

"In the training categories you see very few, and we are working with the Spanish federation so that more can enter, to encourage them," says Herrera.

“The difficult thing is the road, getting the necessary support there.

It is a difficult dynamic to break, because there are few girls who start.

If even for children it is difficult to have the means, since there are so few girls it is normal for almost all of them to fall by the wayside,” Carrasco said in an interview with this newspaper.

In addition to the presence on the asphalt, Angelucci's will is also to add talent inside the garages.

These days, in Alcañiz, they lay the first stone of the project.

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