MotoGP, Pirro: "Ducati has taken two steps forward, the Honda four"

While the MotoGP paddock is moving from Japan to Australia, ahead of the third to last round of the season, the testers are certainly not watching. It is the case of Michele Pirro. After Saturday awards ceremony for the title won in the CIV, the Apulian test driver he will travel to Spain in the next few hours, where he will be engaged in a three-day test on the Valencia track, scheduled from Wednesday to Friday. It will be the opportunity for catapulting into 2020, trying out the innovations that will then be delivered to Dovizioso and Petrucci on the occasion of the November texts, when the officers will be in action after the Valencia Community GP.

"We are preparing something important for 2020 – said Pirro – the'Ducati's goal is to win the world championship so we can't stand still. I already have tried a base and in the coming weeks I will go on track with an evolution and this shows how Ducati is always projected towards the future, we don't take steps back and everything we bring to the track is an improvement ".

There GP19, however, proved to be a step below Marquez's Honda in this season when in the past years it seemed the most complete bike of the line-up. What has changed?

"The truth is that the MotoGP championship has grown a lot – said Pirro – La Honda has adapted itself by bringing a more powerful engine to the track and then they have Marquez which is an added value. Also Yamaha has improved and the arrival of Quartararo has given them an extra boost and therefore there are more drivers competing. I don't think Ducati has taken any steps back from the past, the bike has improved and we have data to prove it. If it had been worse than 2018 we would not have used it in the world championship. The biggest difference at the moment is that though we have taken two steps forward, the others have made four because in the past they were behind us ".

For Pirro, as usual many commitments between the MotoGP Wild Card and the SBK, his work as a tester and also the CIV, for which he was awarded in Milan on Saturday. For the Ducati rider this season has been the seventh victory in the Italian Speed ​​Championship, the third in a row and the fifth in the Superbike category. The V4R proved to be a winning bike and Pirro the solid and reliable driver that we all know. What was the vintage?

"The biggest stimulus this year was the bike – said Pirro – the V4R had no experience unlike the V2 I used in the past and with which I should have just confirmed. The history of this bike was all to be written and I'm happy because the team's work has borne fruit ".

At what level is this CIV in the year of the tenth anniversary of the partnership between the Championship and the Federation?

"It grows more and more, thanks to the work of the Federation. This year against Savadori was tough but it was also beautiful and stimulating ”.

On the stage of the Pirelli auditorium, theater of the award ceremony, Pirro launched some jokes to those who "say they are bad for the CIV". Do you feel bad or a resource for this championship?

"The same could be said of Rea in SBK and Marquez in MotoGP – said Pirro – to deal with people of a level equal to or greater than yours helps in motorcycles as in life ".

In collaboration with Riccardo Guglielmetti