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MotoGP, Petrucci: "With a mini world championship you can’t afford to make mistakes"

"I don't like the fact that there were those teams who chose their riders before they even raced. Two races on the same track is a double-edged sword. Marquez stayed in Honda to beat every record. Rea? He would go well in MotoGP too"

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Danilo Petrucci is spending this rest period in Terni, with his family, between some work in the garden and long training sessions on the bicycle (rollers). The Ducati rider, like everyone else, is eager to get back on the bike and find out what his future will be. In a long live interview on the social channels of GPOne (you can see the video by clicking on the image above) he answered questions from the fans, in his usual plain-spoken way.

A contract for 2021, the future after MotoGP, his toughest rivals; these are the many topics that Petrux touched upon in the broadcast. Here is what he told us.

"I simulate bicycle races to experience the tension of the race"

"It was extremely difficult to get through the first week, the one that led up to the Qatar GP. Fortunately, I recovered immediately, I have tried to make the best of this period to concentrate, since there are no races, on an attempt to lose weight. It is working, but now we have to see how things will be when I get back on the bike, even on just a motocross bike. I had already lost a lot of weight in the past, but this did not help me as much as I wanted. I am trying again.

"I have continued to train daily; in fact, I have probably trained more than I would have done if the championship had started normally. But it is non-specific training, I do a lot of virtual races with the bicycle on the rollers. I do one every Saturday, I have fun simulating the tension of the race. Fortunately, here there has not been a serious medical emergency, so I have been able to relax. I am just missing racing, taking the plane, going back to the paddock, and doing all those things I did for many years".

"A test on the Thursday of the first Grand Prix would be very useful for dialling into a MotoGP bike again"

"I have been thinking a lot about how we will start again, but unfortunately they are all just ideas. We do not know when it will start and where; for sure I am extremely disappointed we did not start in Qatar, for which we had prepared very well. However, I think that this year in the best of cases we will do half a championship so we will have to be immediately ready, regardless of the tracks. I am worried about knowing when and how we will start again. I hope they will let us have a test on the Thursday before the race ".

"It is a long stop, more than the winter one and the big difference is that in this period we have not been able to use any motor vehicles. Nothing at all, so we do not know how well we will be from a physical and reflex point of view, I mean what you need to ride a MotoGP bike. I hope that the quarantine here in Italy will end soon and that the motocross facilities will allow me and Andrea to do some laps. "

"Without a test it would be like racing without doing any training first. Of course, we would all be in the same boat, but it would be useful to be able to dial yourself in again without the stress of free practice, so it would be important to do a test."

"Two races on the same track? A double-edged sword"

"The idea of ​​doing two races on the same track offers you a chance for ‘revenge’, but from a certain point of view it is also a double-edged sword. If you are competitive one Sunday, maybe you are also on the following one and the same could also happen if you are in trouble. It is an unusual solution; it seems clear to me that they are trying to find a solution to make us do as many races as possible. It’s clear however that in any case the events will be held behind closed doors, however things go, and I'm sad about that. "

"It will not be possible to make any slip ups, because they will influence the choices for the future"

"Certainly, to make a good season, whether it is half a season or a mini one, you can call it what you want, you can’t afford to make any slip-ups because the results will influence the choices for the future. I do not know if I will have less pressure or more than usual. I have not thought much about contracts, because in the end only race results are valid and for the moment we are stuck in the pits. We will not have much of a chance to show how much we are worth, but there are also some riders who signed for 2021 before even starting this season. Choosing riders even before we have started racing is not something that I particularly like, but I do not make the rules and I do not decide. I have to move according to the laws of the paddock, which are not written down. You have to be prepared right from the very start and I am a bit disappointed I cannot start from those tracks that might have been favourable for me. But it is not necessarily wrong to think about just gritting your teeth and giving your best in the races that we will do from August onwards ".

"I would like to stay with Ducati and improve year by year. I had intended to start from the bottom and move my way up the rankings. Last year I fought until the last race for third place in the championship, but I did not like the drop-off I had in the second part of the season. This gives me even more strength to do better this year, because I could see where I went wrong. I want to overturn the result of 2019, do better and fight for a top 3 place at the end of the world championship ".

"SBK? In my future I see the Dakar. Rea could do well in MotoGP too"

"In the past they proposed to me to race with Ducati in SBK, but I have shown that I can win in MotoGP and I can score good results, so I would like to do even better. I do not feel accomplished in MotoGP and as long as I have the opportunity, I will try to do my best here. I come from the world of SBK, but if I were to look at my future, I would feel more satisfied with going to do motorally. It would mean having covered all the categories of motorcycling and I still dream of taking part in and finishing a Dakar Rally ".

“I think Rea is a rider who could do well in MotoGP too. I had the opportunity to see him ride in the Jerez tests and he could be at a high level also for us. I would like to see Davies and Razgatlioglu there as well, I think they are both extraordinarily strong riders. It is not an easy transition from SBK to MotoGP ".

"Marquez, Rossi and Dovizioso give 120% on the last lap"

"It is not nice to fight with any MotoGP rider, because they are all pretty tough - he joked – For sure, Marquez, Rossi and Dovizioso give something more than the others in the sense of competitive malice, I happened to fight with all 3 and on the last lap they give 120%. Andrea is more methodical; he does not launch himself without knowing what will happen. Valentino has  strong braking and with Marc you know he will always try; he would even try and pass you in amongst all the wheels. In MotoGP there are the 22 best riders in the world, it is not a fairy tale, even those who finish last are used to winning and going fast and beating one of them gives you great satisfaction ".

“I think Honda have understood Marc's great potential and they didn't let him go; I think Marquez wants to break every record. It would have been curious to see him on another bike, but I think he made his appraisal of the situation and I do not know what other manufacturer could have come close to signing him, it would have been the scoop of the century. It does not seem to me that relations between Marc and Honda have ever broken down. "

"I would be curious to ride a Suzuki ... but only in the middle of the corner, then I would go back to my Ducati!"

“We struggled a lot in the Sepang tests, there were significant changes on the bike, but we hadn't foreseen the change of the new rear tyre. We had to adapt, and the first test was useful for this, then in Qatar I worked mainly on the race pace, doing a complete simulation. I was prepared for the GP, although I still had to work on my one lap, where the gaps between the riders were minimal. On paper we would have fought for the podium, but after listening to all the riders there would have been 15 or 16 of us doing that. "

“Obviously, I would try them all! I was born and raised with the Ducati in MotoGP, after 3 years of CRT. I made my debut on the GP14, the latest evolution of Preziosi’s Desmosedici, and then I switched to the GP15, the first one of Dall’Igna, and the differences were enormous. There are aspects of other bikes that intrigue me, Suzuki and Yamaha are extremely fast mid-corner, I would like to understand how they do it. However, they are missing our acceleration and braking; we should combine all these qualities in a single bike, but if nobody has done it, it means that it is not possible. If you want a headline, you can write I would like to ride the Suzuki, but only in the middle of the curve ".

"Among the young riders I would bet on Quartararo and Mir. My idol? Capirossi"

“It is a good fight among the young riders, but if I were a team manager, I would choose one from Quartararo or Mir. As for the top riders, racing with a Ducati I would choose Dovizioso, who is the one who knows it best, but I would be afraid of having two young guys like Fabio and Joan in the garage ".

“From an early age my idol was Capirossi. My father started working in the Pileri team when Loris arrived and I was born, so I always wanted to be like him. I’ve grown a little bit more than Loris and I am missing 3 world titles and some MotoGP wins, but I hope to have some opportunities. "

 

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