When asked recently which young Italian drivers were the most promising, the experienced Carlo Pernat responded “The future is Bastianini, Bezzecchi, Baldassarri, to which I add di Giannantonio and Marini. They will give us a lot of satisfaction. » In this list of promising talents, today let's look at one of the most discreet, but not one of the slowest, the 3 Moto2018 World Vice-Champion, Fabio di Giannantonio.
It was in 2016 at the Italian Grand Prix that Fabio Quartararo, who was in his second Grand Prix season in Moto3, discovered the rookie Fabio di Giannantonio during an extraordinarily competitive race, won by Brad Binder. The gaps were minimal, with di Giannantonio on Honda finishing 0.038 behind the South African on KTM, ahead Francis Bagnaia on Mahindra at 0.069 from Binder, Niccolò Antonelli on Honda at 0.075 and El Diablo on KTM at 0.077.
In 2018, di Giannantonio won in Brno and Thailand in Moto3, which earned him the following year as part of the Speed Up team. Two remarkable second places marked his Moto2 debut in 2019 at Brno and Misano.
This year he entered his 75th Grand Prix in Qatar, with 2 victories, 16 podiums and 1 pole position. He qualified eleventh at the Losail GP, “I am happy with the way this first qualifying of the season went. Last year we managed to have an excellent race starting from much further back on the grid, I am confident for tomorrow. It will be important to get off to a good start and to manage the front tire better, which seems to be the most important thing here. »
This was indeed the case and he was not the only one. He finished thirteenth. “The first race definitely didn't go the way we wanted. We had a problem with the front tire, which penalized my race. The front tire was the most discussed topic of the weekend because we didn't know if it would last until the end. After several sessions carried out during the tests and the race weekend, we had studied and tested a configuration to arrive at the end of the race with a good rhythm and instead, from the first lap of the race, I did not I never managed to redo our times while risking falling at every curve. We finished the first race in thirteenth place, sorry for what happened but aware of the good work accomplished in Qatar. »
Looking back, Fabio clarified these days “Actually, I just wanted to get back on the bike. Damn, it was a tough ride there” explained Jorge Navarro's teammate at Speed Up to Federico Porrozzi, Mirco Melloni and Serena Zunino of Moto sprint in the video below.
“We had a problem – so it wasn't exactly the result we expected – that we worked on. But this followed three months of intense preparation. Three months where you think, work, prepare and fully recharge your energy, then there is a lot of desire to do well. »
Is the problem you are referring to related to a tire that you found to be thinner than it should have been?
" No. In fact, unfortunately, from time to time you may have a tire that isn't quite right. And, in Qatar especially, there were problems with the front tire which had a big drop, so it dropped a lot during the race and did not reach the end of the race. Especially if you used the soft tire. »
“And we, on the other hand, never had this weekend problem. During the race, I could barely bend over, I was missing almost an inch of shoulder on my right side, and I couldn't lean into right turns. So we thought maybe it was the tire that was bad or something. So that's what happened. »
Your weekend? During the tests, apart from during the third free session which you finished second, you were not among the first. But were you confident for the race? Did you have the rhythm? How did the previous two days go, beyond this race problem?
" Well. To tell the truth, it's not too important to be in the first places during free practice, because you don't get points there. It is therefore important to work well for the race. And we were good, so good…”
Photos © Beta Tools Speed Up Team
