bit more now - I’m that bit more
experienced - it puts us in a different
position to how we were in 2013. He was
the lead rider for BMW but I also won
some races that year, I feel like this time
around it’s different: I’m not the lead rider
but I’m the reference on the same bike
as Marco. In terms of my relationship
with Marco it’s pretty good, I like having a
strong team mate - it’s good as it pushes
me, as did Davide really in the seasons
prior.
That’s an advantage to me, having a
strong rider like that alongside. My
personal relationship with Marco is the
same as with most team mates: we are
very amicable, we seem to get on pretty
well, we aren’t best of buddies, we don’t
go out for a drink together on a Sunday
evening after the race, but there is no
animosity within the team at all so it’s
pretty good.
Are you fully recovered from your
injuries following the Misano incident?
Yeah, I’m definitely all recovered now from
the Misano incident. There was a period
after Laguna when I was still getting a
bit of back ache during the weekend,
and even up to Lausitz, but now it’s
completely gone away so I’m very happy
about that.
2018 will be one more year with the
Panigale, can Ducati still develop the
machine further or will the proposed
new rules change the playing field
slightly?
I think that the bike can still be developed.
It’s pretty much non-stop, even if you
think that a bike is getting old - not just
our bike but any bike - good engineers
will always find a way to extract a bit more
performance from it. We can definitely
still take some steps with the Panigale,
but obviously it gets harder year-on-year
to find those gains because the bar gets
raised and the lap times get more difficult
to achieve. The margins decrease and you
are looking for a 10th or 2 rather than half
a second.
I think the new rules package will be
interesting just to see what it does across
the field. For us it’s really hard to say; for
sure we stand to lose a chunk of what we
achieve on top end (due to the proposed
RPM limit) but again that’s then up to the
engineers to find the best way to work
within the new rules to tailor our engine
so that it does make power in the rev
range that they are talking about setting.
Obviously it’s not yet set in stone, but
when they do firm up the rules, I trust that
the engineers will then find a solution that
works within that spec. So yeah still life in
the old dog yet.
Will you begin to test the new V4 Ducati
during the 2018 season?
Right now the V4 has obviously been
spoken about with Ducati between the
engineers, and I’ve spoken to Claudio
Domenicali a bit about it. As in plans to
actually get on it and give it a run, we
haven’t set anything yet. Firstly, they are
focusing on the road production and
then the Superbike will be a different kind
of spec, and we have to wait for that.
But for sure I would be really keen to
have a test on it, to try and help with the
development would be a great idea during
2018, providing I’m with Ducati beyond
2018. My contract runs to the end of next
year so it’s important that if I offer some
development it’s with a view to racing
the bike when it comes into action in
2019. So yeah, it’s exciting for sure, it’s a
new chapter for Ducati with the V4, it will
definitely be an exciting project.
You had a brief MotoGP test with
Ducati at Mugello, tell us how that
went?
I had a test at Mugello straight after the
Imola race. I did the double at Imola and
went straight to Gigi [Dall’Igna] when he
was in a good mood and asked him if it
could happen. I knew they were testing
at Mugello later that week - he consulted
with the test team and found me