His future he would not reveal to us, because he will take care of it when the time is right. The fact is that after the Jerez round Michael Ruben Rinaldi's Superbike adventure will come to an end. In fact, in 2025 there will be a new challenge awaiting the rider from Romagna with the goal of restarting and returning to fight in the top positions in the Championship in which he will compete.
On the eve of the Estoril round, we therefore shared a long chat with the Motocorsa rider: a reflective Rinaldi, who does not allow himself to be overcome by emotion for his upcoming farewell to the category and who at the same time is not looking for culprits towards whom to point the finger for a 2024 season that so far has not given him much satisfaction.
As far as we are concerned, we will be sorry not to see at the start of the next World SBK Championship Michael Ruben Rinaldi, a rider who in these seasons has proved to be fast, fun off the track and at times even cheeky, remembering that just a year ago this time he won his last race in SBK with Aruba colors. Too bad, then, that the challenge with Motocorsa did not go as hoped.
"Unfortunately, this 2024 did not go the way we hoped, although the team and I have always tried to give our best," he began, "but sometimes racing is unpredictable. Indeed, we cannot control everything and I certainly do not want to go looking for culprits. Inside I would just like to get good results in these last two races to try to end the season in the best possible way."
Michael, why didn't the marriage with Motocorsa work out?
"No one would ever want to go through hard times, but that happens to a lot of athletes and it's normal to have years like that. I will certainly work hard to return to the level shown in the past without any conceit."
After the first Jerez test you had said, "now I understand why Bassani is going so fast with the Ducati."
"Two days after the race I got on the Motocorsa Ducati with a different configuration than the official one. In acceleration I had found great confidence and as a result I made that declaration because the feelings were very positive and I had ambitions for 2024. The fact is that since the January tests the road has been uphill, because we have not been able to find those sensations that I had found in November and we have struggled."
Bassani, in addition to praising your speed, said that one of the problems might be due to the fact that neither you nor Mauri are willing to put your head down.
"I don't know what relationship Axel had with Mauri although I thank him for the kind words. When everything goes well usually misunderstandings do not happen. At the same time I think it is difficult to judge relationships between people in a work context when things are not going well."
Of this 2024, what do you impute to yourself?
"I always question myself since I am not perfect both as a rider and as a person. I just try to work to growand figure out where to improve. So I want to stay humble and look in the mirror to push myself."
You could have raced GMT94's Yamaha in this 2024. How come you chose Motocorsa?
"With the Panigale I made 12 podiums last year and eight the year before. It was a path of continuous growth and I thought that by continuing on the V4 I could improve even more, considering among other things some market movements such as Toprak's move to BMW and Rea's move to Yamaha, not forgetting the ballast for Bautista. That is why I decided to stay on the Ducati."
The experiment, however, did not work....
"The thing I missed the most this year was not the economic component, but not having the fire and adrenaline inside, not being able to bring home a cup."
Everyone is curious about what you will do next year.
"The decision will be targeted on a project that will put me in a position to be up there again with the fastest riders. At the moment there is no 100 percent choice yet, but I think it will come by the Jerez weekend. In my heart, however, I already know what I will do next year."
Looking at the places left on the market, I think at this point you will not be staying in SBK...
"Right, that's likely."
How sorry are you not to continue?
"I'm not here crying. Should I change grids it will be maybe to be able to come back in the future. There is no malaise, but a hard reality to accept because there is one chapter that will close and at the same time another one will open."
Have you talked to anyone about your choice in view of 2025?
"I talked about it with two angels, namely Stefano Cecconi and Serafino Foti, two people with whom I have a long-standing relationship. They are friends to me and I know that I can call them even in the middle of the night to get advice from them."
Is it true that you might get into the ring in the winter?
"I would like to do that, in December, but I don't know yet. I really like martial arts, and doing a boxing match would be like taking a treat. We'll see if it will be possible to do it or not, considering I won't have to challenge Tyson (jokes)."