Former MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone is off to a good start after four years away. Whatever happens, it will be a great story to tell.
About Paolo Gozzi de Motoracing
Today's Superbike is nothing like the days when Fogarty, Russell, Bayliss and Falappa raced. Drivers, bikes, performances: today everything is at the highest level, perhaps better than before. However, what was missing was the character capable of involving a wider audience than just enthusiasts, a controversial, divisive, magnetic character.
Among the giants of the past, alone Carl Fogarty, a talent with four world titles and 59 victories, possessed this stature. On the track he was very fast but also terribly ruthless when necessary. He became the heir of Barry Sheene and one of the UK's most followed and loved sportsmen, not only because he won in bursts, but also for his dark side. Foggy came from a family of motorcyclists but had spent a very difficult adolescence in the slums of Blackbourn, mixing with unsavory circles. Risk and speed were its writing.
Andrea Iannone is the story that was missing from today's Superbike. His return after a four-year ban for doping has caused a stir since rumors began to circulate about his desire to return to the game. And two half days testing in Jerez were enough to skyrocket interest well above usual levels in this championship, much loved by fans, but which only emerged from its niche around the time of Max Biaggi, double world champion in 2010 and 2012. The former MotoGP rider went very fast straight away.
But for now, performance takes second place. The certainty is that, whatever happens, this return will be a great success for Superbike. The return of biaggi, in 2007 after a sabbatical, was pushed, prepared and managed at the highest level by the promoter of the time, namely Maurizio Flammini. It was a sort of sports marketing operation: Superbike bet on the rider cornered by MotoGP, convinced that everyone would win. And so on.
“Andrea Iannone?” Now let him run «
Andrea Iannone, for his part, did everything alone. Out of necessity, or rather out of obligation, he couldn't even shout to the world that he was coming back. biaggi made his return with great fanfare with the Suzuki Alstare of Francesco Batta, the richest and most glamorous team in the paddock. Iannone will settle for Go Eleven, a high-level structure, but full of passion and sweat. After the race, owner Gianni Ramello puts on work gloves and helps the boys dismantle the hospitality.
Let's deal with all the conspiracy theories surrounding disqualification: the Sepang steak, the hair test, the trials, the mysteries. Perhaps in many years we will know how things really happened. But for now, let's assume thatAndrea Iannone is truly guilty. Making mistakes is human, it has happened to many champions in a myriad of sports.
To stay in our world, Superbike, we met some complicated guys: Russell, Gobert, West, to name a few. Whether he was wrong or not, Iannone paid dearly for it, much more than the others. Four years of ban for a driver approaching the age of 30 constitutes a sporting sentence for life. According to criminal lawyers, the sentence imposed in his case was very heavy. Just think about the economic aspect: in the last year of activity, 2019 at Aprilia, Iannone had a salary of 5 million euros.
Andrea Iannone doesn't please everyone, even if everyone talks about him. He is a talented, rich and famous sportsman and has had affairs with dream women. Success is a desire and a curse, it always works that way. He could change his life, say goodbye to motorcycles, to racing and devote himself to business, as he seems to do very well. Instead, his urge was to start running again. Get your hands dirty, sweat, risk everything.
Four years (actually almost five, as he points out), is a long time. » But I never stopped feeling like a pilot “. Imagine how much anger, determination, passion and love it takes. At Jerez, leaving the pit lane for the first time with Ducati Superbike, he may have only thought about the next corner. But it reminds us of the scene in “Papillon,” who jumps off the cliff after years in a nightmarish prison. “ Damn bastards, I'm still alivee. » Now let him run.
