Qatar Special #3: Team Bosses

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long, and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk. Saturday the 18th at the Sail International All Circuit. Delighted to be sat here with Lucio Ciocciniello.

Lucio, welcome back onto the show. Just to jog your memory, the last time you spoke to Motopod was at the test session here in 2018. And you spoke with Martin Darlington, you might remember he's the helicopter pilot. I remember, I remember and absolutely it was a fantastic moment to meet him because of course we have in common the same passion about racing motorcycles and airplane, aircraft, helicopters. I also like.

So we're sitting here in this magnificent new paddock complex at the Sail International Circuit. May I start by taking you back to 1993 when you as a rider of course made your debut in the World Championship. Tell me how much has this place changed in terms of the organization, the logistics, it's a different world now, tell us what it was like before. Yes, definitely the championship changed massively, dramatically. This is thanks to the important effort that Dorna together with the International Motorcycle Federation have done including all the sponsors, supporters and workers.

At the beginning of the 90s, early 90s, Dorna just arrived and they made a quite important change every year in terms of paddock organization, in terms of paddock presentation, in terms of team presentations. Everything has improved in a more professional way. Of course maybe there are some, someone that can have his own opinion and say now it's too much elite, the paddock of the 90s or the 80s were better. But you know this is a kind of a normal evolution that the motorcycle racing have made, a normal evolution and I think also to attract more important sponsors and investors and manufacturers. This is the right way.

Let's come up to date with the 2023 season. It's been for LCR I guess a season of big highs and some lows as well. We had Alex Rins of course taking the sensational win back in Texas and then unfortunately for everybody suffering that terrible leg injury in Mugello. If you could use a single word, what would be your summation word for this 2023 season? It's a nightmare.

A nightmare, okay. Honestly we had two different, completely different feelings because in reality you know when we won in the United States we were saying wow, we you know that's going to be a really great year you know because Alex looks like he likes Honda, looks like you know he dramatically improved from one race to the other you know and then what happened in Mugello was something that completely unexpected. We knew that it was a serious injury but we couldn't imagine that the injury would have left him out until practically the last race of the year. I mean looks like he will retry again in Valencia but we don't know yet. He has to do under a medical check on next Monday and then we see.

Yeah I mean from my personal understanding the biggest frustration ever really is what happened to Alex. I mean Alex Rins is my favorite rider in this championship and has been for many many years so how from a development point of view, I know LCR is not HIC but from a development point of view I'm sure Alex was going to provide a lot of major feedback to Honda so how much of a frustration is that we've missed this opportunity in this single year? Definitely, definitely is a big frustration for all of us including for Honda. We were really pleased when Alex joined Honda including also you and me joined Honda because they came from different manufacturers and they pointed out immediately few things regarding the basically the electronics, the filter of the electronics between the throttle and the rear tire. They really pushed Honda to go on a different direction let's say more with less control less electronic control and having more direct response from the throttle to the rear tire and perhaps we realized thanks to their comments we realized that we were maybe going into a way that it wasn't really the perfect way to recover from the competitors and then we were supposed to continue to work with Rins through the season to judge chassis, aero package and also other item, developer item and unfortunately Alex couldn't race so our season were really really affected.

Now on a kind of related point but going back to talking about the team again, can you tell us a little bit about the well I was going to use the word joy but I'm sure massive stress pressure is involved in running a MotoGP team for example LCR have been very famous in their very creative approach to getting sponsorship for example so what's your approach in the season and kind of what's your sales pitch for LCR when you come up with all these different brands at different races sometimes maybe more in the past than this year but how is running the Grand Prix team in this modern era? It's a big challenge it's a big challenge more and more is important the support of the manufacturer the truth is that Ducati is supporting their own satellite teams KTM, Aprilia and Honda do the same with us without the manufacturer support I think that no one knows that the light team here can imagine to find the budget we need to perform at such a high level. The lack of the performances of course affected the sponsor's motivation so during the year we needed to I don't want to say the work double but we worked really hard to improve our hospitality services our participation and creation of promotional contents events we really did a lot of off-track work in order to compensate the lack of the results and last but not least I would like to say that we are very pleased to be associated with Honda because despite we are in a tough period the reality is that we are sponsored we are supported by motorcycle accessories companies and the fact to be associated to the absolute number one constructor in the world who is able to sell about 20 million units per year is definitely a big asset to keep the sponsor motivated to be associated with LCR because of course the redundancy of the promotion the publicity that Honda themselves are doing with us using our rider's images using our bike images and promoting our own sponsor it definitely helped. Now you've signed Joanne Zarco for 2024 and initially well when the news about Mark Marquez came along there was some speculation that Joanne may go across to Repsol but can you tell us from your point of view the necessity to have him in LCR both in terms of riding results of course but perhaps also from that marketing standpoint because I'm sure you already have big plans in terms of focusing who you're chasing for sponsorship money around having a French rider now coming to the team. Well the choice of Zarco was quite natural in fact because when we been noticed by Alex Reins that he would have moved he would have accepted the Yamaha offer which is quite understandable you know there was a he had an offer from a manufacturer and also it is not a secret they already been in contact end of last year when he he didn't have any any team you know he was approached by Yamaha but then at the end the Yamaha decided to to stick and to fulfill the contract with Morbidelli so basically we knew it but then when Alex decided to leave the LCR Honda then definitely we had a big problem and then when we realized that Zarco would have had only one year contract we approached him offering two years contract plus an option for the third year and then from that point he started to understand that sure he's going to have a big challenge to make Honda faster and more competitive on the other end he could ensure himself a longer career and we decided to get him together with the HRC because he has a tremendous experience massive experience in MotoGP with KTM with Ducati and he will definitely be an asset for Honda and LCR.

In fact you kind of have a dream team coming next year if the story about Marini coming to Honda is true as well so it's an exciting new period for for Honda and for HRC with these different riders coming with all this different experience so I'm sure you must be very confident going forward I know Honda is in a difficult moment but everybody expects Honda to come back because Honda never stays there for very long so are you excited for next year with the changes in the HRC Repsol Honda team as well? Of course personally we are all the team we are not happy to lose Mark because Mark is a big champion big talent and definitely is very very interesting for us every time to look at his performance study his riding style outside of the track looking is the way how we ride the bike on on videos and also ultimately also look at his data is that recording and it will be a big loss but the fact that young competitive riders like Luca Marini or Nigen Antonio I don't know is going to get the right. It's not official yet. But you know it's good because Zarco has a lot of experience as well those riders has less experience but come from a winning manufacturer and I think that they will strongly influence Honda on the way the direction they need to go to get back to the top. I'll just couple things to finish up because I know Irene has me on a tight time scale here.

In terms of this year's schedule we're getting attacked by flies as well which is not very helpful to the interview but this year's schedule is obviously the most punishing one ever we obviously have the sprint races as well so on a human level for you and for the members of the team do you think we're at the limit with 22 races on the 2024 calendar? Yes I think we are in the limit by my side I can say that first of all you do this job only if you have a true passion for racing because if you wouldn't have a passion I think that no one would do it for just a job you know okay maybe the salary of the workers are a little bit higher than a normal worker at home but at the very end you must have definitely a big passion so I feel lucky because all my team has a big passion for this job for racing by the way we are definitely concerned about for instance three races in a row maybe a little bit too much definitely we are a little bit concerned about you know maybe next year we are going to have more tests because with the concession points new rule perhaps we will have also the possibility to test and then definitely we need to take this opportunity so means that is going to be a tough year long year by my side I will do my maximum to keep the guys happy as much I can trying to make their flights more comfortable try to make their stay in the hotel more comfortable trying to push irtah to open the paddock a little bit later than normal because this would be helpful is there a cost cap in moto gp no nothing is that something that's being discussed among the teams in terms of maybe needing to have some more people that you can rotate I think that rotating people is something that we can consider but it's going to be a little bit delicate because you know if you want to perform you need to create a very very strong bond between all the workers and then it's not easy to change the workers and you know just keep the feeling and then also the key people the key engineers need to be there anyway and with this wouldn't be fair you know so I think that yes is something that we what we are at the moment with 20 22 races we are imagining yeah okay just a few uh light-hearted things to finish tell us about your memories of 2006 which was the first year for lcr in the moto gp championship and of course you had a certain rookie rider that year called casey stoner what is your memory of that uh that particular year the particular memory i have many many things to let impress me one of the biggest memory i have is our first race ever in moto gp was here in qatar 2006 i don't remember exactly i think it was early april 2006 we expect him arriving he asked to arrive in qatar on wednesday evening because he wanted to stay one more day at home with the family and the girlfriend unfortunately there was a kind of strike in in australia so he missed his flight then he he flew the next morning but then he lost the coincidence so he had to sleep in dubai airport in the floor he landed at the 9 15 i think 9 20 on friday morning at 10 o'clock we had the practice i grabbed him from the airport i drive here here till here maximum speed while he was putting his leather my colleague elisa was giving him a coffee he put the leather he never saw the race track never he went on track at the end of the fp1 first uh chrono so fastest than everybody and then pole position a little uh hint of what was to come later on we were like well we just arrived in moto gp pole position in qatar you know and then we we were like wow then we missed the podium for a couple of tens and definitely we realized that we had a true champion in number one we knew because he raced with us in the 250 in the 125 again in the 250 we did second place in the 250 but definitely we we knew that he was really strong riding lujo you were yourself a very very fast and successful motorcycle racer have you ever ridden one of the motor gp bikes no because i asked on a couple of times but i understood that they weren't really keen and also i fully understand they fully realize that a motor gp bike it's super expensive and we cannot take out energies and and and also cost for just my personal pleasure yeah so to tell the truth i i had to buy an rcbs which is the street version of the motor gp machine is not really a motor gp bike i mean is is a motor gp bike from 2014 because this is the project but then he was doing uh i use the rcbs when when i do some track day okay so you still do that yeah yeah i do about um four or five days on track every every year this is not very much but this is what i can do and when i do i i really enjoy and this year i i had the chance to try the three cylinder 500 on the ns ns from the 84 used by raimon roche and was an amazing amazing experience sometimes when i'm talking to people like you that were racing in the let's say 80s or 90s i often ask the question just purely two stroke or four stroke what is what is it to you i think it's two strokes yes because it's definitely a more uh i don't know i mean the engine i love the engine i love the mechanic of the two stroke i love uh i love the sound i love the smell yeah yeah and uh yes it's uh it's something that uh for me is very special because it belongs to my era but uh of course the world change the four stroke engines are much much less pollution pollution yeah and definitely we need to respect the environment and we need to keep pushing making our motorsport activity like one of the best platform to develop cleaner engines yeah so definitely and we have the synthetic fuel synthetic fuel so yeah let's go ahead with the four stroke yeah yeah yeah and my last question it's one that i like to ask again people that have been around for a long long time if you could choose any bike from history any race bike from history and you could ride it on any track from history what combination would you choose um i would choose uh i would like to to test the nsr 500 two stroke from the era of wayne garnier eddie lawson but yeah yeah on which track if you could choose any track from history from mystery i would like i would say mugello yes of course where you won your uh race in your final season i just i recall my last race yeah well lucio i hope that's been an interesting few questions not all hopefully too boring things a few interesting things from your history so thank you very much thank you to you and to irene for helping to organize it it's been a great pleasure to talk to you thank you thank you for me too really delighted and honored to be with paolo gabbatti sporting director for ducati lenovo moto gp team uh paolo i have one question yep here we are again at the end of a long season uh very close to the end and it's a very tight championship position again this is for peco yeah do you enjoy this what is it like for you is it stressful or is it pure enjoyment because i know you're a motorsport nut so yeah well i think it's uh there is obviously some tension but on the other side i think it has been a fantastic season i think uh it's between two ducati riders so ducati is already riders world champion not only manufacturer world champion so we can only be happy about that obviously you know if you look a little bit uh what happened during the season for sure pecos crash in uh barcelona and uh luckily no fracture but you know obviously was really influencing that part of a season i think barcelona and mizano they were two tracks where he was thinking he could obviously uh win the race or try to win the race but all in all lucky that you know that horrible accident didn't have more serious consequences and here we are obviously on the other side we saw jorge incredibly fast incredibly fast always especially in a sprint race and uh well what can i say we are on the same bikes same specs of bikes we both are factory riders for ducati because they have factory contracts and let's see i mean i think uh let's enjoy until the end obviously it's a nice position to be with having two ducatis only as you say one will win as opposed to last year where you were fighting another manufacturer so i guess that makes it more enjoyable from your point of view although perhaps it also creates some other tensions and some other problems well it's been a fantastic season i mean well i think it's a problem that many other manufacturers would like to have i think if marco gains five points on binder bezeki then he will be mathematically third in the championship and then ducati will be first second and third in the riders championship never happened in ducati history i think we must go back to 2003 when honda had the five cylinder in moto gp in the first season and it was uh rossi gibber now be at jet thing but you know 20 years ago yeah so it never happened in ducati history so i think we have many things to celebrate obviously it's gonna be some tension because it's always like this but i think it also makes it more enjoyable for the spectators and um we all think it's gonna be at the last round in valencia where the title will be decided i mean i hope so because it's always nice to have it but maybe it's not so nice for you but most likely it's gonna be like this and as i said you know obviously the factory team is willing to repeat the performance of last year the victory of last year on the other side as i said pramac did a fantastic job they will be the world champions for teams normally an independent team is looking for independent team title this year is gonna be for them to be the world champions so they will get the f.i.m award as the best team i mean a few points to be scored here during the weekend so as i said we can always only be happy and obviously we'll see who is the best rider in the end it's gonna be about speed and about also how you can manage the stress because it's gonna be a lot of tension but the good thing is that both peco and jorge they are they know each other since a long time they respect each other so obviously they will be fighting until the end but it's always been a clean nice battle between them which is the most important thing and i must just say to close because you've been very kind to give me some time for me and for motobod we talk about it often how much respect we have for ducati the brand to allow all of the satellite operations to have very very high level equipment so that we arrive at this position where you have this battle going on and it's great respect and amazing work from ducati over the years so it's well deserved yeah we came a long way from 2013 where we were going nowhere until where we are now obviously to see that all the teams and all the riders can be very fast on the ducati side there are a new model or the previous year models the performances you can see are very similar and obviously we have this policy to share data between all the eight riders and their engineers so obviously it's creating a situation where you know anyone can get the best out of his talent and the material and and as i said it's it has been our policy it's helping us to get more information and to develop even more the bikes on the other side obviously it creates a situation where you are the factory team competing with the factory supported team on same material and maybe it's keeping the interest in the championship in the moment when somehow the other manufacturer maybe with exceptional KTM are not constantly yes fighting for the top positions yeah well we applaud you for bringing the championship to this very high level because it's been fantastic to watch and thank you for your time and we wish you good luck this weekend it's a pleasure thank you thank you thank you david a legend of the sport with ducati i have one question for you david from where do you get your motivation and your incredible levels of energy to do this year after year because it's uh it's not my job it is my hobby so you you follow your hobbies and i'm lucky that in my life my hobby became my work so that's why it's easy when you come to the end of another season in a tight championship battle again this year it's not as stressful for you it's just a pleasure to be here and do this job year on year like every year since 40 years every end of the season i'm saying is it's time to retire he's too much he's dead and after one month i'm looking to the luggage to leave my house and go to the rest continue thank you for talking to us thank you good luck today so i'm sitting here with francesco gradati team manager of ktm motor gp is it the correct title red bull ktm factory thank you yes yes yes francesco can you sum up for me a little bit we're coming towards the end of a very long grueling 2023 season seems that ktm started very strong maybe dipped a little bit in the middle part of the season and is now coming very strong again how do you sum up the progress of the team this season no it's clearly a positive season we start quite good then considering results we never we never give up i mean we were when we were out of the of the podium we were anyway close to to it so we have to consider the gap more than more than the position and with brad we always been very competitive and with jack i was expecting a slower a slower start of the season instead of a mid season but we know with a new bike it's a circle some system can make the difference but anyway for sure it's a positive and a good progression during the during the year uh we reduced the gap from last year quite a lot so now start to be more difficult because the last part of the gap is the most difficult to close but yeah important to be constantly on on top and understand that where we can we can improve and i'm only meant to be asking you one question but just as a kind of addition to that thought that you had with a modern motor gp bike obviously you have crazy electronics in there you have aerodynamic devices all over the body work you have the devices lowering the front and the back and so on and everything has to work together in harmony this seems to me to be an area where ktm has really made a lot of progress this year to the point where maybe it's very very close now to the ducati would you agree with that obviously there's always more to do in part in part because i think also on the chassis side we made a big change and in in terms of setup and also then material because we we moved to the to the new chassis so yeah we develop a lot the aero the chassis and not only the engine we know that is uh is frozen it's frozen so yeah i mean we have to recover everywhere a little bit and uh we're pushing hard and last thing promise the one are you happy with where the team is at now or a bit frustrated you obviously you want to be further forward you want to be winning the championship but are you satisfied overall we're not happy because we will be happy when we we will win constantly but we are satisfied where of the progress we we've done great well good to talk to you thank you for allowing me to grab you for five minutes and uh yeah good luck this weekend thank you mate thank you bye cheers cheers grassland rnf team thank you for seeing me at short notice uh very kind of you i have one main question for you um so this year you're running obviously the aprilia bikes and in the early part of the season miguel sitting over there was looking very strong and raul was perhaps finding it more difficult taking more time to adapt to the bike and as the season has progressed they've kind of changed places a little bit so do you have any thoughts about from a rider's point of view what the different respective performance of the two guys has been well i think number one we have to remember that this is both riders first year on the rsgp it's number one and it's also aprilia's first year having an independent team our rookie year with aprilia yeah although the aprilia do give us the support that we need but to some extent it's not enough we're asking for more next year then when it comes to the riders yes miguel is the more established and mature rider with six wins yes um and we expect him to be at least top 10 you know maybe there's a bit too ambitious but at some point we saw he he can do that yes immediately in in portimao until that infamous crash terrible bad luck all year long really but yeah and then again with fabio and we saw him achieving fourth places fifth places up until nizano then situation took a turn in the two triple headers and so the flyways something went wrong we could not get the best out of him at the same time there was incidences with a visor problem in japan etc etc some technical issue and grew around with the engine problem but we always seem to struggle from day one friday so this is something that we couldn't pinpoint exactly as to why but at the end of the day the times that the riders both riders did last year was they're faster but then again all the other riders also step up it's relentless isn't it it just moves forward all the time maybe though that's a comfort for us but it's just a comfort still a frustration yeah exactly with raul he didn't start very well i mean even in sepang he already had a feeling of an ampam and that persisted until just before lamans he did the operation yeah also a handful to deal with because he's full of confidence sometimes a bit overconfident you know immediately he wants to be there but we asked it to be step by step you know but we we worked on it really well but unfortunately when he was progressing he's also hampered by a lot of technical problems with and that frustrates him a lot yeah with exhaust valve problem technical problem in malaysia and and aprilia recognized that and apologizes for all these technical issues and make a commitment that for next year they will have to step up in in all areas because again the the witness from them it's not a witness they are they are understanding on how to manage the satellite team yeah especially the management spare parts how to replace them how to produce yeah yeah but you must nevertheless be very pleased to see that the timing screens where raul is concerned he's getting much faster in the last or in this second half of the season let's say so that must give you big confidence for next year yeah because we believe in him from the very beginning both massimo and i we we targeted him even when he was in the ktm and i was when we were using the yamaha and he wanted him also and when we joined together with aprilia we had a common view on the on the riders yeah it was easy yeah yeah and we believe in him and also we believe in michael as well yeah of course of course yeah well razzan thank you so much for allowing me to doorstep you like that and for giving me five minutes of your valuable insight it's been a great pleasure to talk to you thank you