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"Yesterday could have been a wonderful day," Alessio Salucci, team director of VR46, cannot hide his disappointment at what happened to Di Giannantonio. An unfortunate landing from a wheelie after the session had finished cost Fabio a broken collarbone and surgery. So he will arrive at the first race with only one day of testing on that Ducati GP25 he had been waiting for all winter.
"We had started the day a little bit in trouble because a completely new bike had arrived and Pirro had not been able to do the shakedown on ours, so we had to start completely from scratch," Uccio says, "Diggia knew this and took it philosophically, we had worked well in the first hours. Then, unfortunately, Fabio had a small slip in the middle of the afternoon and this slowed down the work. To cut a long story short, by the end we had set up the bike and Diggia started to go really fast. He did his best times on used tires and we were really happy. The day was really going in the right direction."
And then...
"We stopped and Diggia went out to practice for the start. Between Turn 4 and 5 the MotoGP riders want to wheelie, when you have to make your time you can't allow that, but when you want to have fun you do. Riders are born into wheelies. Unfortunately, today's MotoGPs don't even allow you these little distractions, but they do it anyway. The front wheel slowed too much compared to the rear, and the front, when he touched the ground, closed up unexpectedly. He crashed and broke his collarbone."
How serious is the injury?
"The fracture is compound. We took X-rays and immediately called Professor Castagna, the doctor who operated on him in November. Fabio has already left for Italy and will have surgery between Friday and Sunday, at the doctors' discretion."
What did they say about recovery time?
"This is not comparable to the injury Fabio had last year, when his humerus came out. The clavicle is a more trivial injury - so to speak - for a rider, I remember that Bezzecchi, after a similar fracture, was on the podium in the Sprint at Mandalika five days after the operation, so we are positive. I get ahead of myself, we have to wait for the doctors' checks, but Professor Castagna told us it is not a bad fracture. If everything goes well, Di Giannantonio could come back for Buriram, I'm talking about the GP because for testing it's ruled out."
What did Di Giannantonio say to you?
"He was very, very sorry and apologized to the whole team. I don't want a rider to apologize because he does a wheelie, riders have to have fun, I grew up like that. He was very sorry because, after a difficult year, yesterday he had found a bike that made him smile every time he went out on it. He kept telling me how good it was, how well it was turning, how hard it was braking. He was also sorry that he also lost the chance to have fun riding it today and tomorrow, but he will have a way to do that throughout the season."
Will Pirro replace Di Giannantonio on these two days in Sepang?
"No, Michele will work with the Test Team, we gave him Fabio's space in our box and some mechanics. As VR46 we will continue only with Franco, we will simply give our support to Ducati, as we always do."
Three riders were injured on the first day of testing, what do you think?
"I am of the opinion that we cannot go on with this with the tires, we cannot have few tires and these few are not the ones that work. Not only do they bring us few tires, but they also bring us medium tires that are of no use here. So the team is forced to run the rider on nonfunctional tires having to take them to the limit as well. A test like this costs about 350,000 euros for a team and we risk not running. If I wanted to test optimally, I would have to run 30 laps a day per rider, and that is not possible. We would only work for two hours, which is absurd. It has to be changed."
Are you talking about this between teams?
"Yes, we would like to try to figure out how to solve this situation because, in my opinion, it is also to the detriment of our sport. Yesterday Franco crashed because he had been riding for an hour with a tire that was useless and, at this level, for a small distraction you can go down and risk hurting yourself. In fact, after one day of testing, three protagonists are already missing, including the world champion. I say this quietly and calmly, Dorna and Michelin should do something. We, as a team, are willing to talk about it and find a compromise because sometimes I am almost afraid to test. In fact, just this morning, I talked to all the guys and told them to do fewer laps, but quality laps. There is no point in doing 100 laps, 30 of which are good and 70 are not. Mine is constructive criticism, because I love this sport, everyone works their butts off, then you get here and you find yourself eking out your laps."
Shall we talk about Morbidelli?
"Let's talk about good things (laughs). Franco is cool and I like his attitude because he has completely thrown himself into our arms. He has a good feeling with Matteo (Flamigni, the crew chief, ed.), with Idalio (Gavira, the coach, ed.), with all our team, in my opinion we can really have fun together. Yesterday he made some great runs - among other things with used mediums - he is one of those riders who the longer they stay out, the stronger they go. We have to improve the time attack, but he will find that too, Gavira and Migno are putting him in the right conditions. Then he is Brazilian, he brings joy, Franco has to have fun. If we keep him in the range of having Carioca fun, he will give us great emotions."
