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Andrea Iannone ended his comeback in the MotoGP of the Malaysian weekend with the smile of someone who knows that he gave it his all. The rider from Vasto had repeatedly stressed that his expectations went beyond his result in the standings. If anything, it was a matter of experiencing different sensations, maybe more extreme for him since, until a few weeks ago, was busy on the circuits of the Superbike championship.
With these premises, the tiredness is understandable, on one hand, but so is the surprise and admiration, on the other, for the technological progrss that the prototypes in the MotoGP have made. All of this on a circuit like Sepang, which is very technical, and with conditions that weren't easy, and ones that also challenged the other riders who are more accustomed to the pace of the MotoGP. So, Iannone is rather satisfied. The unknown now will be whether the paddock and fans will still get the chance to see him on the track in the last round in Barcelona.
"Going through these nineteen laps was really tiring," Iannone began. "By lap five, my arms were hurting. I went into survival mode the whole race, basically. One lap, I was going slow, one I was pushing, then slow again, and pushing again. The goal was to finish the race. In the end, I did fifteen seconds better than Bautista last year, more or less, on the same bike. Plus, he had a chance to test it, while I packed up from Jerez and came here. My benchmark has to be that, not Bagnaia."
You also received compliments from Martin.
"He wrote to me last night. He saw my data and said, bro, look at how you ride!'. But there are certain points where you have to brake, and I lose everything there. I still don't have the references, and I don't know the limits of the bike. I wasn't able to take advantage of the brakes or the aerodynamics but, mostly physically, I couldn't brake. There are some things you can only do on the bike. They're not things you can train for at home. In the Superbike, you don't brake like you do with these bikes. There's a study whereby Malaysia and Japan are the circuits where you brake the most, and you brake for six seconds on average, and the bike before without aerodynamics exerted a force on your arms of about 150 kg per brake. We're talking about 2014. If you think that now the fork is 150 instead of 135, plus the aerodynamics ... with three days of testing, you get two days rest, and then you could go twice as fast."
But maybe you'll already think about Barcelona on the plane, and get the urge to get back on the bike right away?
"Right now, we haven't talked about it yet. It's not my decision. If they propose it to me, I'll think about it for a moment. I still haven't spoken with Valentino or anyone else. Surely, everyone's going to have to want it. Dall'Igna, but I as well."
Overall, how was this return of yours to the MotoGP. Did you enjoy it?
"A lot, without a doubt. I'm leaving happy, because I'm glad to see that I'm still able to be fast, which is what I'm interested in. Everyone knows, they've seen the data. That's the good thing, and I feel I did my part. I couldn't screw up and had to finish the race. I demonstrated that I was fast, but facing a race is obviously another thing. You have to be physically prepared."
Five years after racing on a prototype in the MotoGP, what do you think is the worst, what's the best, and what surprised you the most?
"Definitely, it is very physical, but there's nothing bad. Maybe there's the fact that, when you're behind someone, the bike isn't a bike anymore. It doesn't do what it would do when you're alone. When you're alone, you can be fast but, when you're behind someone, it's very difficult to overtake and figure out what to do, obviously, for me, who maybe did one hundred laps this weekend. What's unbelievable for sure is the technological advancement, and the garage here also matters a lot."
