Livio Suppo is no longer in the Grand Prix paddock, but he had a notable stint in the two biggest teams on the grid. First with Ducati, he then moved to a field management position at Honda. A course which allowed him to rub shoulders closely with two major drivers, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The Italian remembers the first and notes that he is still in the game, which gives him the opportunity to remember the second...
Le MotoGP remains at the stand, blocked by a coronavirus which disrupts the calendar, prevents people from leaving and returning and which quarantines the circuits. A milestone to pass, the release of which is hoped for the month of May. For the motorcycle Grands Prix, it will then be the opportunity to find the light again for a Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. We must hope so!
In the meantime, the protagonists and actors of the present and the past talk. Livio Suppo, Racing Consultant contributes by developing the subject Valentino Rossi, but not only… " Valentino continues to have fun, continues to be competitive. If he were to retire based on his performance, he would have no reason to do so. Valentino is still going strong and he's not absolutely ridiculous. The fact that he continues to have fun and continues to outperform most other drivers in my opinion justifies the fact that he is still racing. »
« Plus, going that fast at 41 isn't really easy. Vale is always competitive. Then whether it continues or not will always depend, as he also says, on performance. If this year he lost his competitiveness and found himself out of the 5, for a driver like him, with his past, at that point it would be a bit too much. But if he says: “I don’t care about results anymore, I just want to have fun running”, then he could also continue. On the other hand, if he thinks: “I want to try to win this 10th World Cup and I’m going to Petronas to try”, I would find that a bit exaggerated. But if he says: “I'm 42, still enjoying the racing world and still competitive enough to make a good impression” so why not. »
Always taking the Doctor as his main idea, the former director of the team Honda remembers his same functions at Ducati : " I already no longer worked with Ducati. This was certainly a wedding that created wild expectations. They tried to do the right thing immediately. The Ducati was a pretty special bike, which didn't fit Valentino's characteristics at all, just like Jorge did for a while, and Lorenzo himself struggled with Honda last year. Sometimes riders, especially those who already have a lot of experience, find it more difficult to adapt, compared to young people, to a motorcycle that has different characteristics than the ones they are used to riding. »
« Probably, the desire to try to do more than necessary arose and at that moment they began to change everything and instead of making things better, they made them worse. This would have been a great story if it had happened, however, it was a story that didn't work. We have the example of Jorge last year with Honda which is even worse " finished suppo on Sportfair. It will be recalled that the two pilots found themselves under the Yamaha awning, Red continuing his career while Lorenzo is now a test pilot for Iwata's company.
