Carlos Pérez: Team Owner, Mechanic and “Coach” at 27

As we know MotoJunior, together with the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, is the final step before reaching the MotoGP World Championship or, more generally, a road racing world championship. It also features historic teams with significant budget, including some that also compete in the world championship such as CFMoto Aspar. However, at the same time the paddock is full of much smaller teams and one of them is run by Carlos Pérez, a 27-year-old who, despite his young age, has already built an impressive career as a mechanic and now as a team owner and “coach” (you will soon understand the quotation marks of the word “coach”).

Carlos Pérez opened up with Palmen in Motorradsport in an exclusive interview, where we discussed the 2026 season and, above all, the journey that has brought him to where he is today.

Carlos, first question: what’s your role in motorcycle racing?

I am the owner of the Da Corsa Competizione team and also of the 360 Riders Center. I am 27 years old, so I am still very young to be both a team owner and a rider coach. I started working in motorcycle racing at 18 as a mechanic and gradually took on more and more responsibilities, until I created my own team in 2025.

Can you remind us your team's programme for the 2026 season?

We compete in the Moto2 European Championship and the Stock European Championship, within the MotoJunior paddock. Our riders are Rossi Moor in Moto2 (with Revesz Racing, ed) and Sarthak Chavan and Juanes Rivera in the Stock class.

How was the start of the season?

It was very good. Moor keeps improving and, since we started working together, he has gone from struggling to score points to becoming a consistent top ten finisher. At Jerez, for example, he finished seventh and his laptimes were close to the top 5. In the Stock European Championship, Chavan is getting closer and closer to the podium, which is far from obvious considering that he came from very different bikes, having raced in the TVS Asia One Make Championship.

Again in the Stock category, Rivera is showing exactly what he is capable of. Just think about Barcelona: Rivera fought for the podium and finished sixth in his first race after a year away from racing. Moreover, because of budget constraints, he raced his training bike and he had only three sets of tyres, instead of the six or seven used by the rest of the field. Tackling four days, starting from Thursday Free Practice sessions, with only three sets of tyres was incredibly difficult, but we proved that we can fight at the front.

How did your get into motorcycle racing?

My father has always been a huge fan, and ever since I was born we spent every Sunday watching Valentino Rossi on TV. Later, while studying, I moved to Málaga to study racing mechanics. There were 120 students and I finished as the top student of the course. I then started working as a mechanic at the age of 18, first through internships and then as a full time job. I began in the Spanish Championship and in supermoto, and little by little I started working in more and more racing series.

What are the highlights of your career so far?

My favourite memory was in Supermoto, when Álex Ruiz and I won both the Spanish Championship and the European Championship. Working with him was my greatest achievement as a mechanic, although unfortunately his career ended after an accident in Germany. This equals another unforgettable moment: a rider who had grown up with me at my training center reached the Moto3 World Championship. That rider is Casey O'Gorman.

So you were his coach?

We still work together today, but I don’t consider myself as his coach. In fact, I don’t consider myself a coach at all, because what I do is train with my riders, take them to the circuit and set up their bikes. I help them with all of that, but I do not teach them anything. Besides that, what could I possibly teach to a top rider like Casey?

How long have you run your riders center?

For about four years. The first rider I worked with was Chanon Inta, a Thai rider who competed in the Moto2 European Championship at the time. I have also worked with riders such as Gian Paolo Di Vittori, Gonçalo Capote and Edoardo "Dodó" Boggio, as well as O'Gorman.

How did you feel when the deal between O'Gorman and Sic58 Squadra Corse became official?

When I found out that it was done, I started crying with joy. Very few people know how much effort lays behind that. We trained together every day, in 2025 we travelled to France before the Magny Cours round to prepare, and I spent an entire night repairing the bike after a crash. We made many sacrifices, but they were absolutely worth it.

How did you end up creating your own team, Da Corsa Competizione?

Four years ago I started working as a mechanic in the Moto2 European Championship, but in the end I had to do everything myself. I had to train the riders, manage the team's workshop, place orders for the parts we needed, prepare the bikes and much more. On top of that, I was a mechanic in the Moto2 ECh and the crew chief in the European Talent Cup (now the Moto4 European Cup, ed). I had to do absolutely everything on my own.

Then, in 2025, one rider wanted to race with that team, but did not have enough money. So I told him: "You buy the bike, I buy the facilities and we will race on our own". Since I had already been managing everything in the previous team, I already knew how to do it.

One thing I noticed is that you speak Italian fluently. How did you learn it so well?

I worked for one season in the Supersport 300 World Championship, with the Kawasaki GP Project team. At first, to adapt quickly, I thought I would learn Italian with Duolingo like many people do. Then we arrived at the first test and I could not understand a single word (laughs, ed). So I changed my approach: I switched my phone to Italian, started reading and watching television in Italian and even set everything in my car in Italian. I would also like to mention, about that season, that I worked with Kevin Sabatucci. Working with him is another experience that will always be in my heart.

Going back to your career, why did you not continue in the WorldSBK paddock?

Because my dream was to work in MotoGP and I knew that, to get there, I first had to go through MotoJunior. But, as I said, that was my goal. As the years went by, I changed my mind and realised that what I really want is to grow my own team and help more riders on their path to the World Championship, just as happened with O'Gorman.

Are there any young riders you would like to work with?

Many. For example, Carlos Cano and Álvaro Lucas, who is leading the Moto4 European Cup. They are both incredible talents and I believe they will reach the World Championship. I also really like Giulio Pugliese. However, Lucas and Pugliese already work with people they trust: Lucas works with Francisco "Pacote" Marmol and Giulio with his mechanic Giuseppe. If we ever ended up cooperating with each other, I would want them to continue working with those people as well. I don’t want to “steal” them from anyone.

Have you ever had a moment when you thought about giving it up?

Many times, especially in 2025. Some people did not pay what had been agreed, and at one point I went through serious financial issues. It demotivated me, and I thought about quitting, but in the end I kept going and completely refused to give up. As a mechanic, I have also worked with teams that later failed to pay me. Unfortunately, it happens much more often than people think. I believe this happened at least once to 30 or 40% of mechanics working in motorcycle racing.

What have those experiences taught you?

Besides teaching me that you cannot trust everyone, they also made me realise how important it is to pay your personnel on time and make sure that everyone is happy. For me, the most important thing is that the team is happy and works in harmony. That matters even more than results. People working in a team like mine spend a lot of time away from home, so it is essential to create a calm and enjoyable environment to make both our work and our trips less stressful. And I feel that we are succeeding. In addition to that, whenever necessary, the Stock crew helps the Moto2 crew, and vice versa.

What is your goal for the future?

My dream would be to reach the World Championship with my own team. However, my main goal is still to keep helping riders on their journey to the World Championship. If I had to choose between bringing my team to the world stage or helping ten riders get there, I would choose the second option. Right now I work with three riders, Rossi Moor in Moto2 and Sarthak Chavan and Juanes Rivera in Stock. I hope all three of them can make it to a world championship.

How realistic is it for your team to get there?

It takes a huge budget and a major sponsor, which we simply do not have at the moment. We are one of the smallest and least “rich” teams in MotoJunior. We do not even have a Team Coordinator to arrange our trips, nor anyone dedicated to finding sponsors or designing the bikes. I do many of those jobs myself. And when you are an underdog and you achieve results, they mean even more.

Finally, would you like to thank anyone in particular for everything you have experienced so far?

Above all, I want to thank my father, my mother, my sister and my grandmother, who sadly is no longer with us. They are the people who have always supported me in everything I have done and who always believed in me, even when I had lost my motivation. Now I have my own team, I help several riders on their journey and I have even received offers to work in the Grand Prix paddock myself. I turned them down, because I want to prioritise my own projects. I want to achieve more and more success, despite us not matching the resources of the top teams.

Palmen in Motorradsport is grateful to Carlos Pérez Villa for his time. Best wishes to him and Da Corsa Competizione for the next races and seasons.