Adrian Huertas “has great talent and a great desire to prove it”

Adrian Huertas’ move to the Moto2 World Championship in 2025 makes him the second high-profile WorldSSP rider to make the switch in recent years, and it is a move made possible by his “great talent and [...] great desire to prove it.”

That’s according to Livio Suppo, the former Ducati, HRC, and Suzuki team boss who has been in his current role as racing consultant at Italtrans — the Moto2 team which signed Huertas earlier this year — since the beginning of 2024.

“For a rider with three years of experience on bikes more similar to the Moto2, like the Supersports, which use the same Pirelli tyres, it's somehow easier than the other rookies,” Suppo said — speaking to GPOne.com — of Huertas following the Spaniard’s first test on the Italtrans Moto2 bike, which took place at Jerez in November.

“He was clearly more comfortable on the bike in these tests, even if there are going to be very high-level Moto2 rookies next year, like David Alonso, who dominated the Moto3 World Championship; Collin Veijer who's very strong; and Dani Holgado.

“It's clear that the others will learn and adapt better to the big bikes, but I'm convinced that the speed that Adrian demonstrated isn't only related to the fact that he was already used to the big bikes, but also to the fact that he has a great talent and a great desire to prove it."

Huertas’ route to Moto2, via World Supersport 300 and latterly WorldSSP, is a rare one which has only been taken by one rider in the past: Manuel Gonzalez, who won his first Grand Prix this year at Motegi.

“In MotoGP, there's a kind of ‘snobbism’ towards it [the Superbike paddock],” Suppo said, “which is partly justified by the fact that most of the riders who race in Supersport or Superbike weren't able to break through in MotoGP or in Moto2 and went [to the Superbike paddock instead].

“But it's completely different for Huertas.

“When he was young, he tried to do the Rookies Cup because his family couldn't afford to have him race. He made his debut too early because he knew it was the only chance he had to get into the limelight. He fell a lot, he got hurt a lot, and he missed that train.

“The only way he could stay in racing with the finances he had at that time was to race in Supersport 300. He won it in his second year and then went to the Supersport, even though he had no budget, because Serafino Foti, Chaz Davis, and Daniele Casolari realised he had something special, signed a contract with him and, this year, he won the World Championship.

“Hats off to whoever spotted him first. I just looked around and realised he was a bit different from the other riders coming from the Supersport.”