Former enduro racer Roberto Locatelli fulfilled his father´s dreams by taking up a career in road racing, and his adaptation to tarmac was astounding. Italian 125 Sport Production Champion in´93, he finished 12th in the European Championship a year later and after being taken on by Aprilia the Italian soon progressed into 250cc World Championship competition. Having dropped back into 125cc with Honda in´97, he gradually began to gather confidence and in ´99 he was offered the chance to move back to Aprilia.

It was with the Italian factory that he won the 125cc World Championship in 2000, before demonstrating his maturity with an impressive return to 250cc the following year, when he picked up two podium finishes and ended the season in 8th. After another season in the quarter-litre class in 2002, he went back to the 125cc class in 2003 to join the new Red Bull KTM team but had a frustrating season due to teething problems with the new bike.

Back on an Aprilia under Lucio Cecchinello’s management in 2004, he was one of the main challengers for the title before losing ground on his rivals during the second part of the season. In 2005, the Italian veteran once again made the move up to quarter-litre racing, and a great performance in 2006 as the best privateer resulted in his move to an official factory ride with Gilera.

An horrific crash resulted in life-threatening injuries in just the second race of 2007 at Jerez. Remarkably he was back in action within a matter of weeks and made several top ten appearances in the second half of the year.

In 2008 Locatelli again formed an all-Italian partnership with exciting youngster Marco Simoncelli in the duo´s second year together with Metis Gilera, providing advice and support as Simoncelli took a surprise World title. The pair remain teammates in 2009.