Over the course of a remarkable career of 17 years, the peerless Giacomo Agostini won a record 15 World Championship titles, 10 Isle of Man TT crowns and a total of 123 Grand Prix. He became motor cycling’s first world superstar and, whether riding a 350cc or 500cc machine, he was always the man to beat. Brought up in Lovere, near Bergamo, he cut his racing teeth in hill-climb events before being offered a place on Morini’s works team in 1964. He immediately began to impress and was soon given a World Championship ride by MV Agusta as understudy to Mike Hailwood, who became something of a mentor to him. Agostini made his first telling impact in 1965 when he rode a 350cc three cylinder to victory on its very first outing at the Nurburgring and narrowly missed out on his first World Championship that year.
Following the departure of Hailwood to Honda, Agostini became MV’s No 1 rider and responded by winning his first 500cc World Championship in 1966. This was the first of seven successive 500cc titles which he won from 1966 to 1972. He also won the 350cc World Championship title seven times between 1968 and 1974.
In 1967 he had a memorable battle with Hailwood in one of the most dramatic seasons ever seen in Grand Prix history. In the 500cc event, the contest went down to the last race in Canada after Agostini and Hailwood had swapped wins all season. Hailwood won in Canada to tie on points with Agostini. Each rider had five wins, so it came down to second places, with Agostini taking the title with three seconds to Hailwood’s two.
In 1974 Agostini surprised the racing world when he switched to Yamaha. In that year, in addition to winning the prestigious Daytona 200, the premier American motor cycle race, he also won his seventh 350cc World Championship, but injuries and mechanical problems hampered his 500cc challenge. However, he came back in 1975 to win the 500cc World Championship for the eighth time – his final world crown. Fittingly, in 1976, his last career victory came at the Nurburgring, the German venue where he had won his very first Grand Prix back in 1965.
A man of principle, Agostini dropped a bombshell on the Grand Prix world when, after the death of his close friend Gilberto Parlotti at the 1972 Isle of Man TT, he announced he would never again race at the event because he considered it unsafe. At the time, the TT was the most prestigious race on the motor cycling calendar. Other top riders joined his boycott of the event and by 1976 it had been removed from the Grand Prix schedule.
At the end of 1977, he quit motorcycle racing and switched to four wheels.
However, his experience in Formula 2 and Formula 1 was brief and not particularly successful. In 1980, Giacomo Agostini decided to retire from racing for good. His return to the competitive scene came in 1982 as a team manager for motorcycle teams. He reunited with Yamaha, the manufacturer to which he had delivered its first world title, and immediately came close to winning another championship in the 500cc class thanks to New Zealander Graeme Crosby.
Then, in 1984, he finally achieved a world title as a team manager. The prestigious milestone was reached with Californian champion Eddie Lawson, with whom he went on to win a total of three World Championships: 1984, 1986, and 1988.
In 1992, he also joined Cagiva as team manager, leading the Italian manufacturer to its first Grand Prix victories: one with Eddie Lawson in 1992 and two with John Kocinski in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995, Giacomo Agostini managed a 250cc Honda team, claiming victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix with rider Doriano Romboni.
