Valentino. In the world of racing, the name alone carries a certain weight. And when you add the surname Herrlich to the mix, the path for this 15-year-old from Langenbieber, Hesse, is practically set in stone. In 2025, Valentino Herrlich will be riding a Ducati Panigale V2 for Andreas Köder’s MotoLife team, and he’s ready to Supersport the IDM Supersport . And with a name like that, it’s no wonder that his biggest role model is nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi.
The Minibike class, the Northern Talent Cup, the European Talent Cup. Valentino Herrlich has already done it all. After a year in Spain riding a Moto3 Honda, however, he had to face a harsh reality. His growth spurt, which brought his height to 1.80 meters, made any hope of eventually moving up to MotoGP via the Moto3 pathway impossible.
“But as we all know, there are many paths to the goal,” says the 15-year-old confidently, whose name inspires dreams. “I’m now going to take the route through the 600cc class, and then either move directly into the Moto2 World Championship or realize my dream of racing in MotoGP via the Supersport.” In 2024, he was once again a year too young to be allowed to Supersport directly in the IDM Supersport series. To stay in racing mode, he bridged the season with the German Moto Masters (GMM), which has no age limit.
But now it counts. On January 7, 2025, Herrlich will turn 16 and will be eligible to compete in the IDM Supersport Generation on a Ducati. MotoLife team manager Andreas Köder explains how he came to sign his new rider: “I got a call from an acquaintance who was at a Hafeneger track day in Brno. He told me about a fast teenager in the Supersport class. It was about Valentino. After that, I occasionally followed the live timing whenever Valentino was racing somewhere. I’m thinking specifically of Schleiz, when he took part in a race for amateur riders. My IDM colleagues Till Belczykowski and Luca Göttlicher were there on the same day. So I was able to compare everything well, and Valentino’s results were already on par with theirs. After that, the first discussions began. You have to plan for the future, after all.” Above all, it’s important that the chemistry between everyone involved is right.
According to Köder, intensive testing is planned for March and April in Spain and Germany.
