After a serious crash: Matteo Bertelle and the road back to the top of Moto3

It was the strongest Italian performance of the 2026 Moto3 season so far: at the Sachsenring, Matteo Bertelle took third place, finishing seven thousandths of a second ahead of Marco Morelli. After Le Mans, this was his second podium finish of the year, this time in dry conditions. On Andrea Migno’s ‘Mig Babol’ podcast, the 22-year-old from Monselice spoke alongside team manager Alessandro Tonucci and chief engineer Federico ‘Frigno’ Fernani about what lies between these podium finishes and the high point of his career in the spring of 2025.

The crash remains a turning point in Bertelle’s life

Bertelle had started 2025 with two pole positions in Thailand and Argentina, as well as a third-place finish in Austin, when an accident brought him to a halt on 6 April. LEVELUP MTA confirmed at the time that he had suffered fractures to his right tibia and left upper arm, but the team never provided any details about the circumstances of the accident, as the family had asked for discretion.

This point also remained unaddressed in the podcast. Bertelle spoke about his motocross training and washing his bike at home, but deliberately omitted any description of how the accident happened: “My brother was there and called my dad. Then my dad dialled the emergency number, and the helicopter arrived.” He was flown to Padua.

The severity of the head injuries only became public knowledge in the summer of 2025: Bertelle was in an induced coma. He now describes the weeks that followed in his own words. It wasn’t about racing, but about standing upright again. “I struggled to stand,” he said of the first few days. During visits home from hospital, he had to give in whilst in the car: “When my dad was driving, I had to close my eyes, otherwise…” Through the Clinica Mobile, he was put in touch with a doctor, and this was followed by balance exercises. Progress was measurable every three or four days. He left hospital in May and, by his own account, was ready to return in July/August. His comeback was a success at Motegi.

Weight gain slowed him down

On top of that came a second problem, which he hadn’t spoken about publicly until now. From August to November 2025, he put on weight without being able to control his body weight. “I was a ball, a balloon. I weighed over 65 kilos and couldn’t understand why my body wasn’t losing the swelling, even though I hadn’t eaten anything.” He is now back down to 60 to 61 kilos. He worked out what this means in Moto3 over the course of a lap: the minimum weight of rider, clothing and motorbike is 152 kg; according to Fernani, the KTM alone weighs 82 to 85 kg, with the leathers, helmet and boots adding a further 10 to 11 kg. That leaves about 59 kilos – unclothed. The fact that the class has a structural problem with this calculation has been a topic of discussion in the paddock for years. Proposals to use a flat-rate value for rider weight have been on the table since the minimum age was raised to 18.

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Bertelle makes no secret of where he wants to go: Moto3 is becoming too small for him; at home, he doesn’t train to improve, but to stay light. Tonucci, who stood on the Moto3 podium himself at Motegi in 2012 and has been in management since 2016, disagrees: You only belong in Moto2 if you’ve really been at the front in Moto3 and can join a good team; otherwise, the move comes at the wrong time. Bertelle is currently ninth in the World Championship and the top Italian in the class. His stated goal for the season is a top-five finish.

Without the contract extension with LEVELUP MTA following the crash, Bertelle said, he’d probably be at home with his father today – slicing mortadella.