MotoGP, An aperitif with Biaggi: "I regret the days of close combat between riders"

It's winter, it's Friday, and it's 6:30 p.m. The dreadful hour of returning home, the aperitif of red and white car headlights in motionless queues on Rome's roads is served. It seeme somewhat unusual then to find a motorcycle dealership packed to the doorway, swollen like the cheeks of a child holding his breath during an underwater apnea competition. Yet, at Piazza Pio XI 59/60, it is there.

The motivation for this strange circumstance is soon explained by the event poster on the showroom's glossy polished windows: "Friday, Feb. 7 aperitif with Max Biaggi. Come and visit us from 6:30 p.m. and meet Max live!"

Actually, we at GPOne were already aware of the event held at the new headquarters of "Che Moto!" and we certainly did not pass by there led by the trajectories of chance. The opportunity to see "the Roman Emperor" unveil to an audience of enthusiasts one of the 30 Aprilia RSV4 X Ex3ma (which we meticulously described to you here when it was presented at Misano) produced in celebratory livery for the thirtieth anniversary of the world championship won in 1994 and also being able to exchange a few comments, is too good to let slip away.

The overwhelming response, however, aroused the writer's amazement. Of course, you readers will say, Max Biaggi is not exactly a stranger, least of all in Rome, where he represents the home-grown icon of motorcycle racing, and what's more, the Fiorenzi brothers - Enrico and Massimo - owners of the dealership chain in question, have since 2009 become an institution and a benchmark in the Capital for those fond of all Piaggio & Co. group brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi and, last but not least, Aprilia.

In the face of three important aspects - the six-time World Champion, the fifth essence of Aprilia Racing's crossover into mass production, and the street cred of Che Moto! - there is in fact little wonder that the result is a cross-gender and cross-age crowd who, instead of ending their work week on the couch at home as soon as possible, chose a Friday afternoon in early February to find themselves tightly packed inside a motorcycle showroom.

In any case, a bit of reflection this warm gathering I think continues to deserve, because such a phenomenon shows how much sport, in this case motorcycle racing, represents in the contemporary world something culturally serious and because there is no other social phenomenon still today that is capable of generating icons fixed in time - long-asting icons that resist against the ephemeral horde of prematurely aging new phenomena. Symbols of passion that lead one to move, to travel, to rejoice and curse, to sacrifice hours of rest, to be close to that rider, that team or that footballer, who comes to represent a horizon of meaning for so many people and so many lives, for so many memories of women and men.

But let's get to the point. Looking at the appearance of this Queen of two wheels what immediately emerges is an interweaving of distant historical times, the 1990s livery (tinted over a profusion of carbon), evoking the RS250 "Black Pearl" dressed in Chesterfield colours, and the hyper-contemporary lines drawn by aerodynamic research, which in today's motorcycling has become a key area of development.

Specifically, the RSV4 Ex3ma, in addition to absolutely cutting-edge technical kit, adopts the ground effect fairing that, albeit in a reduced form, exploits the same concept that debuted on the unforgettable Formula 1 cars of the 1970s.

"Yes, this special RSV4 inherits the livery of the RS250 with which in 1994 I won my first world championship in Aprilia. But except for sharing the colours, here we are faced with a completely different object, a child of technical progress. In those days in motorcycle racing, aerodynamics was an unexplored front, there were no wings, let alone ground effect. This scaling here," says the Roman, brushing the edge of the step carved along the side of the fairing with the index finger of his hand, "derives from MotoGP and is made on purpose so that once in a corner the airflows that slide between the ground and the fairing suck the bike back to the asphalt. In addition to all the downforce developed by the wings especially when the bike is upright, now even in the corner you feel pushed down, it's an incredible feeling that definitely helps you develop grip and consequently push harder."

Imagining a fast amateur getting into the saddle, having some time to get the hang of it, can this bike here give similar sensations to a real racing bike?

"I had the opportunity to try the Extrema on the Cremona track, and in my opinion for feel it is as close as you can get to a MotoGP bike on the market. Of course, the appropriate distinctions remain: MotoGP takes every detail to the extreme, we are talking about other weights, here we are at 165 kg compared to the 150 kg of the premier class, plus there we touch peaks of almost 300 hp and this RSV4 has 230. So, it remains a nice delta, but we should not forget that in MotoGP we are talking about prototypes designed and studied specifically for racing competition, while this is a road bike to which all the most sophisticated concepts have been applied, from the ventilation for the brakes to the APX electronics made in Aprilia, which allows the rider to customize every single setting for every single corner. When you're riding and going for speed being able to tailor a bike to your liking offers a huge advantage. And then this baby here can even reach 340 Km/h, not bad (laughs)."

Over the 30 years that have elapsed between this iconic celebratory livery and the current era, motorcycle racing has been transformed. Of this change, is there anything that has particularly struck you? Something you preferred about the past or perhaps envy about the present?

"Let's say that those who lived through the motorcycle racing of the 1990s-2000s regret those races where close combat was freer, where when you were fighting with an equal opponent you could dare on-the-limit maneuvers, resort to creativity. Today, all it takes is one braking that is too tight, or too wide, and immediately the race director intervenes with the "under investigation" warning, and when he gets to the finish line the rider does not know whether he is penalized or not, whether from first or second he will finish third or fourth. Therefore, the dynamic that is triggered in the rider's mind is more conservative, because you feel sub iudice, you run with the doubt that a perhaps daring, whimsical stroke - within the limits of fairness, I mean - could cause you to be relegated by incurring a penalty."

As a racer who, like you, has been able to ride a 500, MotoGP, Superbike and Formula 1, what is the biggest difference between these incredible machines?

"Good question, it would take half an hour to answer! (laughs). So, the bikes well or poorly resemble each other. Between them, the biggest difference that the sensations remind me of is that the 500 was a very light bike - about 130 kg - with a much sharper delivery, you would start at low revs and then have a brutal explosion of power when the tachometer got high, and then the bike would bolt up, wheelie, twist all the way up... it was very difficult. In motorcycles now, the delivery is very smooth and progressive, plus the electronics give a big hand in calming the power available. However, it is the Formula1 that marks the real gap. I remember when I tested it at Mugello. You would get to the San Donato braking, and compared to the 150 metres that I used as a reference on the motorcycle to start braking, with the Formula 1 you would lift off at 50 m. Although the top speed was the same as in MotoGP, you had to keep your foot all the way down for another 100 m, which is a gulf. At first I would come in, brake and realize I had done it too early because the car would take nothing to stop, and then I would pick up the throttle and refrain further. I had to recalibrate my eye and my whole reference system, because the stopping space-time of Formula 1 is lethal, incomparable to that of any other vehicle. Then, it may sound silly, but I remember that in the car I felt discomfort from being strapped in by the belts while driving, I felt trapped."

OK, the body. In motorcycles it is for all intents and purposes an organ of riding. An organ that you riders often, with sacrifice, manage to make "work" despite injuries. We have medicine, there are doctors, for sure, but do you think there is something more that makes the motorcycle rider a 'one-of-a-kind' in terms of injury and pain management?

"In motorcycles there has always been this ... - the search for the right word seems to be very important in this thinking - let's call it madness. Anyway, when safety takes over, you have to be careful. If I think about cars, to stay in motorsport, actually I have never heard too much about that. Whereas in motorcycle racing, in the past as now, there have always been people who have raced with pins, with screws, with fresh fractures. I don't know," says the #3 with the air of someone who seems to have to find explanations for something that is completely normal to him, "I think it's passion, not just the desire to take risks, maybe even the desire not to lose points to score a result. I too once raced on Sunday by taking a pin in my hand on Saturday - "Mugello 1999" called out very precisely a fan from the audience - I started way behind and finished second. Too bad at the last corner, where I was first but my arm of the fractured hand gave out. I didn't see the podium because when it was time to go up I got sick (laughs)."

Is there a great deal of nostalgia in Max Biaggi's life, something he now misses and thinks about since he stopped racing?

"You know, I'm not so nostalgic that I acutely feel the lack of something, I think in that case it would mean having remorse. Instead if I look back I do it with a smile. Maybe I might miss an Italian Grand Prix when on the podium you raise the cup and see down there thousands of people celebrating with you a success. That is a beautiful thing that will never return, but the fact that it is a memory does not detract from its beauty."

We have concluded our chat, but Max, on the other hand, will stick around for more for than an hour, there are an avalanche of photos to pose for, a court of postcards, helmets, posters, models, T-shirts, caps begging for his autograph.