General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Motorvalley

Motorvalley is a 2026 Italian drama series distributed internationally by Netflix, set in the world of Gran Turismo (GT) car racing in Emilia-Romagna, the Italian region known as the Motor Valley. Across six episodes, an heiress named Elena Dionisi hires a reckless young driver and a troubled former champion to compete in the Italian Gran Turismo Championship and reclaim control of her family's racing empire.¹ The series premiered globally on Netflix on February 10, 2026.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Italian-language drama, 1 season of 6 episodes, rated 13+ on Netflix¹
Release	February 10, 2026, on Netflix worldwide²
Creators	Francesca Manieri, Gianluca Bernardini, and Matteo Rovere¹
Directors	Matteo Rovere, Pippo Mezzapesa, and Lyda Patitucci³
Lead cast	Luca Argentero (Arturo Benini), Giulia Michelini (Elena Dionisi), Caterina Forza (Blu Venturi)⁴
Setting	Emilia-Romagna's Motor Valley and the Italian Gran Turismo Championship⁵
Episode length	Between 42 minutes 24 seconds and 49 minutes 54 seconds²
IMDb rating	5.8/10 from 659 user ratings⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The Dionisi siblings inherit the family racing team, and Elena (Giulia Michelini) leaves to found her own squad to beat her brother Giulio in the Italian Gran Turismo Championship. To do so she recruits Blu Venturi (Caterina Forza), a young driver with immense talent for speed but a problematic character, and Arturo Benini (Luca Argentero), a former champion forced into retirement after a devastating accident, to coach her.⁷ Netflix's synopsis describes an heiress desperate to gain control of her family's racing empire who hires a reckless driver and a troubled coach to compete in the Italian Gran Turismo.¹

The first episodes follow this setup: in episode 1 Elena founds her own team; in episode 2, days before qualifying, she convinces Arturo to train Blu, who must confront shadows from her past; in episode 3 Elena is cut off from the family estate and Blu clashes with her rival Paolo off the track; in episode 4 a figure from Blu's past resurfaces while the SC17 team runs short of resources and Elena makes a risky bet.¹

Cast and characters

The central trio is Luca Argentero as Arturo Benini, Giulia Michelini as Elena Dionisi, and Caterina Forza as Blu Venturi; Forza became known to a general audience for her role as Nina in the series Prisma.⁴^•⁵ Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Arianna, Blu's mother.⁴^•¹⁰ In the supporting roles, Ahmed is played by Davide Donin, Paolo Ferri by Ivano Chinali, Giulio Dionisi by Giuseppe Spata, Ettore by Giancarlo Previati, Vittorio Benini by Diego Ribon, Bruno Dionisi by Stefano Abbati, Sergio Casadio by Leonardo Bianconi, Giada Dionisi by Simonetta Solder, and Filippo by Andrea Montovoli.⁴ In episode 4, set at Vallelunga, the YouTuber and content creator Alberto Naska makes a cameo appearance playing himself.¹¹

Production

Groenlandia and the creative team. The series was produced by Matteo Rovere for his Groenlandia group. Rovere shares direction with Pippo Mezzapesa and Lyda Patitucci, and the writing team includes Francesca Manieri, Gianluca Bernardini, Michela Straniero, and Erika Z. Galli.³^•⁴ In an interview with ANSA, Rovere described the story's core as second chances, the family that forms, the possibility of returning to the track, and resilience, and said he sought a partner willing to take on an ambitious challenge, finding in Netflix an ideal interlocutor attentive to local stories and eager to renew the Italian genre cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.⁸

Filming. Production took place mainly in Emilia-Romagna, particularly Imola, with the Mugello circuit in Tuscany, near Scarperia and San Piero, also used for several days in 2024.⁵ The series was filmed across major Italian tracks including Imola, Mugello, Monza, and Vallelunga, and footage recorded during the 2024 Italian Gran Turismo Championship appears throughout the series.⁴ Magneti Marelli Checkstar's branding is featured trackside and on vehicles during the filming of the championship races.⁹

Relation to Veloce come il vento

Motorvalley marks Matteo Rovere's return to motorsport storytelling ten years after his 2016 film Veloce come il vento, which he also wrote with Francesca Manieri, the series' co-screenwriter.⁸^•¹² Reviewers noted both continuity and distance: the series keeps the earlier film's spirit of comeback as the engine of the story while changing and adding much to that universe, and it refines the film's method of shooting during real races and mixing that realistic footage with the fictional plot, though some critics felt the Netflix production polish cost it some of the film's rougher, guerrilla-style energy.¹³^•¹⁴

Setting: the Motor Valley

The title refers to the Motor Valley, a concentrated area of Emilia-Romagna, especially around Modena, Bologna, Parma, and Reggio Emilia, known for its cluster of iconic automotive and motorcycle manufacturers: Ferrari in Maranello, Lamborghini in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Maserati in Modena, Pagani in San Cesario sul Panaro, and Ducati in Bologna.⁴ The Toscana Film Commission describes it as an industrial and cultural district home to some of the world's most important car and motorbike manufacturers.⁵ A trade publication described Motorvalley as perhaps the first serial project in Italy about the world of motors, told through the story of an extended family in Emilia-Romagna, a land where, more than blood, petrol flows in the veins.¹⁵

Reception

The British Board of Film Classification rated all six episodes with content advisories of nudity, language, and threat, classifying them for VOD/streaming distribution by Netflix on February 9, 2026.² On IMDb the series holds a weighted rating of 5.8/10 from 659 ratings, with an unweighted mean of 6.1; ratings by episode range from 7.0 to 7.6, with the finale the highest rated.⁶ FilmTV.it recorded a critics' score of 7 and an audience score of 6 out of 10.⁷

Critical response in Italy was divided. Wired Italia called it a light but not superficial product, accessible and created for a transversal audience, especially lovers of speed and cars.¹⁶ MYmovies.it credited Francesca Manieri's screenplay with psychological introspection and a willingness to play with the sports-movie genre without flattening it into cliché.¹² By contrast, Davide Maggio's review gave it 2.4 out of 5, criticizing the forced Emilian accents of the leads and finding the main characters immature and hard to root for.¹⁰ Cineuropa described it as the first Italian action series set in the world of motors, combining spectacle, family drama, coming-of-age, and the desire for redemption.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Family and relationship drama › Soap operas and melodrama

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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