In 2026, Polimi Motorcycle Factory brought its work to the place where a prototype moves beyond the drawing board: the circuit. Its first full season in CIV Moto3 marked the beginning of a high-intensity campaign for the racing team of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, where performance, reliability, operational management and the ability to respond are measured over the course of just a few laps.
At Misano, Tosa - PMF’s first Moto3 prototype - opened the season with Mirko Gennai aboard. Alongside his commitments in the World Sportbike Championship, Gennai placed the motorcycle among the frontrunners from the opening rounds, offering the team an early indication of the work achieved.
The Mugello round delivered PMF’s first major results of the season. In a weekend shaped by changing weather, Gennai narrowly missed the podium in Race 1, before finishing second in the Superpole Race and third in Race 2. At Imola, Tosa confirmed its competitiveness with fourth place in Race 1. In Race 2, however, a crash brought Gennai’s race to an end while he was running third on Tosa. For PMF’s first prototype, that moment appeared likely to mark the end of its competitive season.
It was then that Eva entered the season. Developed in ten months and initially introduced as Tosa Evo, PMF’s second motorcycle made its racing debut at the Misano Racing Night. Eva qualified second, immediately showing its potential, but two technical issues prevented that pace from becoming a race result.
At Cremona, with Gennai unable to take part, Lorenzo Ventura brought Eva back to the circuit. There was little time to become familiar with the prototype, yet the weekend delivered further confirmation: Ventura fought back to sixth in Race 1, then finished fourth on Sunday, just 0.8 seconds off the lead group. From the outset, Eva showed that it could offer the team what it had been built for: a new opportunity for development and racing.
The final round at Vallelunga brought PMF’s two motorcycles together for the first time. The team fielded two prototypes and two riders in the same weekend: Gennai returned, this time aboard Eva, while Ventura returned Tosa to the grid. After a rain-affected Friday, Gennai qualified second and finished second in Race 1 after a close battle with Vicente Perez. Ventura fought back to seventh.
Race 2 came down to the final lap. Gennai led the race and, in his closing battle with Victor Cubeles, made a decisive pass at the Tornantino. At the chequered flag, the gap was just 23 thousandths of a second: PMF’s first championship race win.
Behind those thousandths lies a season that extended far beyond race weekends: long nights in the workshop, kilometres travelled from Milan to the circuits, work carried out through a particularly hot summer and the need to find new solutions time and again. Under the technical guidance of Andrea Danese, students and riders took Tosa and Eva through results, difficulties, crashes and recoveries. The victory at Vallelunga does not conclude that journey; it makes visible the dedication, method and passion through which PMF continues to turn track experience into development capability.
Every milestone carries the contribution of all those who built this work day by day. The 2026 season leaves a concrete foundation from which to move forward: track experience, two evolving prototypes and the confidence to compete at a high level, with the ambition to turn what has been learned into new opportunities.
