The two Grand Prix MotoGP in Misano, Italy, were the perfect opportunity for us to share this interview with you. Lucio Cecchinello, the boss of the LCR team, which we had achieved at Le Mans.
Beyond the news of his team which makes him run Johann zarco et Takaaki Nakagami under different colours, it is indeed the man, his career and his approach to competition, which have seduced us, in an environment where the captains of the MotoGP satellite teams can be counted on the fingers of one hand, often tossed between the goodwill of the factories and economic reality. Between passion and business, their facets are numerous and their portrait necessarily interesting, and as such Lucio Cecchinello is far from having disappointed us…
So, Lucio Cecchinello, how can you be born in Venice and be interested in motorcycles, but not in gondolas or boats?
Lucio Cecchinello : “Yes, that’s a very good question. The reality is that yes, I was born in Venice, but at the age of 3 my parents moved to Bologna, so right in the Motor Valley, and there, in Bologna, I grew up completely in the motorsport environment. I lived not far from the Malaguti factory, not far from the Ducati factory, and not far from various technicians who worked in the world of motorcycle racing.”
So, at what age did you develop a passion for motorcycles?
"So you remember that in Bologna in the 80s of my youth, there was the Bologna Motor Show. The Bologna Motor Show was a very big international event where all the motorcycle and accessory manufacturers had an exhibition, and in the public area of the Bologna Motor Show, there were motor sports, the motor shows, exactly like it is here (at Le Mans) on Saturday night. And there, it was something really exceptional, and I was a kid of 13, 14, 15 years old, and I saw the dragsters doing the acceleration tests on the straight of the fair, I saw the stuntmen, I saw the motocross races, I saw a lot of things and I fell in love with everything that was competition motorcycles, motocross and speed motorcycles.
When I was 13, I had already started to develop my little bike, at 14 I had my first Vespa 50cc which was a 150cc that did 140 km/h (laughs), 138 exactly. And from then on, I tinkered all the time with the transformations of motorcycles. At the age of 16, I asked my parents if I could start doing motorcycle competitions. My parents, they told me “no, no, no, no, no!” And there, finally, I came to an agreement with my parents: at the age of 18, if I finished my baccalaureate, I could do motorcycle competitions, but they, never, never would they help me. And there, it was a bit complicated at the beginning, but hey, that's how I started.”
You then had a rather traditional racing career, until you created your own team while you were still a fully active rider. But each time, the name GIVI was important…
“So the LCR company was born in 96, and I was a pilot until 2003.
I set up the LCR team after winning the European Championship in 95, because I had already done the 93 and 94 World Championships with private bikes, 94 with a team sponsored by GIVI. And there I met Mr. Visenzi, the boss of GIVI, for the first time. It was in 94 and I was teammate of Noboru Ueda. In 95 I went back to do the European Championship because the results in the World Championship were not good, and I won the European Championship with the Pileri team, and in 96, with the title of European Champion 95, I asked for registration to organize my team. It was something I did because I thought that if unfortunately things did not work out as a rider, at least I had a team and I could participate in the World Championship as a team boss, and I could continue to work in the motorcycle field.
You were almost the only one to do that?
"No, no, there was Jorge "Aspar" Martinez who had his team, there was Sito Pons, iThere was Dirk Raudies in 125, who won the world championship in 1993, and he had his team. So I tried to copy that model, because I was already 25 years old and considering my age, I said, “OK, it’s better that I do it like this”. And 98 was a very important year because it’s true that I hired my old teammate Noboru Ueda, with whom I had raced in 94, I hired him, we became friends, and between the two of us we convinced Mr. Visenzi to support us. So from 98, it’s true that until today, GIVI has always supported us, in a significant way, sometimes a little less significant, but has always remained faithful, and even today we are supported by GIVI.”
In terms of communication, we also saw that you had innovated, because I think you were one of the first to have, for example, a sponsor for a given race and then another sponsor for another. You also made an impression with unusual things like the Playboy operation in 2009, and today you have two different teams with two different names, you do magazines, big books every season: you are the one who thinks about all that and is it a strategy, a need?
“Exactly! You said it right, it’s the need, it’s the need. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of things and I’ve learned that sometimes you still have to take a few risks or try to think outside the box, right? Imagining working with two oil companies is unimaginable, but we’ve been working with two oil companies since 2018. Each has its own communication program, each has its own pilot, each has its own website, each has its own press releases. We travel in a parallel but separate way. It's true that, for example, when I moved up to MotoGP in 2006 with Casey Stoner, we didn't have a big sponsor for the whole season, so I looked at Dorna who had different title sponsors for each Grand Prix, like the Motul Grand Prix in France or the Tim Grand Prix in Italy, et cetera, et cetera. And then I thought "OK, I'm going to do the same things and so instead of working with one sponsor for the whole year and 16, 18 races, I'm going to try to find 4 or 5 different sponsors so that they buy 5 races each. And I give the possibility to each one to try to promote on markets where they had interest". And there, it was something that fortunately worked, and it gave me the possibility to stay in MotoGP in a period where, if we look, since 2006 the Pons team stopped, the Gresini team changed with Aprilia, the Interwetten team stopped, the Konica Minolta team stopped, the AB Cardion team stopped, the Jorge Martinez Aspar team stopped, the Scott team stopped. So you see, there I said “I am the last one (laughs) who has survived all these last years”. But it is true that we have the possibility to survive because, indeed, we managed to think of offering our partners sponsorship programs that are a little out of the ordinary.
You have adapted, and we know that those who do not adapt disappear, but at the same time loyalty is there since GIVI is still there...
"Yes. So it's true that with Mr. Visenzi of GIVI, there is a very, very close relationship, and I mean that he is very attached to the Honda brand, because he raced, he competed when he was young, with Yamaha but also with Honda.
He was a Honda dealer in the 70s, he knew Soichiro Honda personally, so it's true that he is particularly attached to the Honda brand, and I know that for him, the fact that we are associated with Honda and that his brand is associated with Honda, is something that motivates him and it also gives him extra motivation to stay attached to our team.
This partially answers one of my questions. Right now (at the French GP), we know that Yamaha is looking for a satellite team, and that they have approached several teams. Have you been approached by them or not?
"No. NWell, Yamaha never contacted me. I think they already know that I am someone who has no real reason to leave Honda for Yamaha, and I think that between Japanese, they also respect each other. You see, there is still respect between these big manufacturers. Another thing would be if I were to propose myself, but let's say that for the moment the priority for me is not to leave the boat when it is in the storm, so I am here, all out, trying to bring the boat back to the other side (laughs).
Lucio Cecchinello MotoGP LCR 
Lucio Cecchinello MotoGP LCR
Lucio Cecchinello MotoGP LCR
