A few weeks ago we interviewed Marco Melandri, who spoke to us mostly about Toprak Razgatlioglu. In the week leading up to the Donington round of Superbike, here is the second part of the chat we had with the rider from Ravenna.
As we know, the former rider has been following in these early rounds Axel Bassani, who is fully committed to his new adventure riding the Kawasaki. So here is the #33's opinion about the work Bassani has done and more.
"Axel is a young and talented rider - began Melandri - unfortunately, however, he lacks some experience and I simply wanted to help him in this new path. My task is to put him in a position to read the acquisition data, while comparing them with the sensations he feels on the track. It's one thing, in fact, to tell the technicians that the bike is not running, but you need to be more analytical so you can understand where the problems are coming from and how to intervene."
What's your idea of him?
"Axel is a young, talented rider who has technique. He rides the Kawasaki better than Lowes, as Alex is an improviser. Bassani, however, should not make the mistake of making the Kawasaki go fast like he did with the Ducati because they are two completely different bikes. I, however, have seen great improvements on his part and I think he will raise the bar even higher."
Speaking of other riders, what about Bulega and Bautista?
"Nicolò has been great, he has an extraordinary riding style and I think the results confirm his quality. Alvaro, on the other hand, has a very strong opponent like Toprak and it won't be easy at all, but he still remains competitive."
What about Iannone?
"Andrea has made a great return to competition after a four-year stop. In the first races, held on tracks congenial to him such as Australia and Barcelona he was competitive, but then on the others he struggled. We'll see what happens at Donington and Most, two tracks quite different from the last ones."
Iannone's future is also holding centre stage. There is talk of a possible MotoGP test, of replacing Bautista. What's your idea?
"I think Andrea has to be realistic with himself. Should Bautista continue to race, the right choice is to continue with Go Eleven, which is his current team. I have also heard the MotoGP rumors, but in my opinion it is better to have a strong and competitive bike like the Panigale V4 than a Yamaha M1 struggling in MotoGP. Having to suffer every weekend then becomes hard to accept."
Did you expect Rea to struggle like this?
"No. Speaking now, although it's easy to say, he was wrong to go to Yamaha. Irrespective of the lack of competitiveness, the problem is the crashes. Johnny in this early part of the Championship has crashed a lot hitting the ground hard. I think these are signs of fate to be listened to without ignoring them. I don't want to add anything more."