“I am in the MotoGP world championship? I’m ready. Ducati for life? I would be …”

Turn on the lights, raise the curtain, let the gladiators in. It is now a matter of a few hours, the first pole position this evening, which will be followed in 24 hours by the proclamation of the first winner of this long season. And for what he showed in the last races of 2021, for how he and Ducati marry and complement each other perfectly, if there is a favorite name marked in everyone’s notebook, this is Francesco Bagnaia’s. Who in Losail also appears as a fresh newlywed of the Rossa.

Pecco, the season begins and you have already signed the renewal that will see you stay with Ducati in 2023 and 2024 as well.

“I am very happy, because we chose together with Ducati at the beginning of 2018 (to race with Pramac in the two-year period 2019-2020) and being able to continue this growth and adventure is the best thing that can happen to me. If they offered me to do an entire career with them, I’d be happy. I’m happy, I’ve already found myself in this situation and it’s something that gives me a lot of serenity. ”

You have already signed several contracts in your career. Was this the easiest one to close?

“This, but also those of 2018 to move to Pramac and Moto2. Apart from my first years in the World Championship, the others have always been good contracts. I have always been lucky enough to meet good people on my path.”

Can you be friends with the people you work with in the box, or, since you are all professionals, the relationship, however good, remains within certain limits?

“The way I am, you have to be a friend. If there is no serenity in the garage, it becomes difficult to get something out. Because serenity, safety and trust are essential to go well”.

The person in Ducati you are most attached to?

“A little bit of everyone. Gabarrini (Cristian, his track engineer; editor’s note) and Tommy (Pagano, the electronics engineer; ed) are the people I’ve spent the most time with and bonded with the most. We know each other perfectly. But already from the first test with the factory bike I was at home. That was what I needed. ”

If you look at your career, who is the person you need to say the most thanks to?

“The VR46 Academy, which is not just a person, but the whole, the group. But in reality there are more people: for the first phase of my career, even if I was a child, my family, therefore the Academy, then, in recent years, my girlfriend and Ducati “.

Everyone knows, or is starting to know more and more, the pilot Francesco Bagnaia. But who is the man instead?

“I feel and see myself as a very normal boy, I don’t live on the memories of my races, I live my life very peacefully. I am lucky enough to have remained friends with my childhood companions, they still treat me, rightly, as the 12 year old boy who used to go out with them. It’s good that it is, I’m very lucky to have a group of people around me who help me keep my feet on the ground, even if I wouldn’t need it anyway, since I don’t I’m a man who gets to his head “.

If the child Pecco saw today’s adult one, what would he think?

“Which is great. He would like to grow like him.”

What is left, however, of that child?

“Everything. I’m still quite a child in many things. And the person who reminds me the most is Dudi, my girlfriend, who is often keen to make me notice it.”

Had it gone wrong with the bikes, what would you do today?

“I think I would be studying, or rather I would have already taken the master’s degree. I would certainly be a genius space engineer or a chef”.

A genius … He touches her slowly huh? He laughs.

“At school I was normal, good, until the bikes became a priority for me. Growing up, I realized more and more that I could go fast on the bike, even in the important categories, and therefore I started to put less effort into it and to go badly. But if there was not even remotely the idea of ​​the bike, I think I would have been good at school. Even if, as I am, who always need a lot of challenges, I could still have been a sportsman. ”

To be a champion and to be successful, you have to live like inside a tunnel. It’s true?

“Yes. I live for that. In the end, my work, my life revolve around racing, but without taking time away from the family, to live it well. Because it would be bad to live only for that. You have to enjoy all things” .

For some things you are privileged, you lead a good life. How does the outside world perceive it?

“I know I’m very lucky, my job is my passion, therefore, it will never weigh on me, and this is something for a privileged few. But beyond that, I live very normally, I go out to dinner, it’s me that I go shopping … mine is a life in some ways the same as that of many “.

Did you watch the Olympics?

“No, because we were away for the tests and it was difficult. I only saw the Goggia, it impressed me. A few weeks after an injury, even if you never know how serious it can be, to win a silver in the first race that comes back. to dispute is certainly a great result “.

“No. Unfortunately not. One day I would like to be prepared on this topic too, but I admit to being ignorant. Because when you are always around and you can hardly live your life normally, you find it harder to follow what happens. Maybe with this answer it may seem that I’m someone who doesn’t care what happens, but that’s not the case. ”

In December he was received at the Quirinale by President Mattarella.

“And it was very nice, it is something that only happens to a few, and being among those who were called to go to him made me very proud”.

What, in your opinion, is the worst flaw in modern society?

“It is not social networks, which in my opinion are stupid and do not represent a problem. It is more the difficulty in understanding certain situations that occur in certain societies, it is selfishness, always wanting to excel in everything”.

“Yes, very much. In New York at the end of the year with Domitia we went to see many museums, I also went to MOMA, which hosts a very different, particular art. And I really liked it. Even as a child, art made me always interested, I remember a trip to Paris and the visit we had made to the Louvre, I liked wandering around those infinite corridors. I looked at everything. I like trying to understand the thought behind a creation, but I think I’m not yet big enough to understand. When I look at a painting and then read what inspired an artist to make it, I often don’t understand what could have to do with it. ”

“No, my collections can be shoes at most, but I only buy them because I like them.”

The best book you’ve ever read?

“I mainly read the autobiographies of sportsmen. I loved Open, by André Agassi, but also Come un fulmine, by Usain Bolt. Or that of Tyson, very heavy because he didn’t have an easy life”.

You know you were little more than children, but do you remember the first time, the first thought he had when he met Domitia, his girlfriend?

“I talked to her about it once. I remember a time when my mother took my sister Carola and me to Domitia’s mother in the shop: she told us that Dudi was in the house back there with her grandmother. And we had entered this room. where she was playing with this huge dollhouse. It is the first memory I have of her, but we were very young, I must have been 4-5 years old. And then there is one thing that always makes me laugh a lot, that is prophecy of a friend of mine who always repeated that it would be easier for me to win a World Cup rather than join Domitia “.

Is your relationship …?

“Beautiful. I’m very happy.”

You did the dress rehearsal with Turbo, the harlequin dachshund you just got. But do you think about a child?

“We are still young. My future is not yet written but it is quite clear, as long as I ride a motorbike I will be in Pesaro. Domitia’s one, on the other hand, is to be understood: she is very young and this work experience in the field of fashion is hers. before, maybe in the future he might even change his mind about what to do. The intention of both of them, however, is to stay together, but before talking about a child there is more to think about “.

Carola works with her and often directs her by rod. What advice do you give to your brother, Philip, instead?

“That doesn’t need anything, he’s a crazy cool guy. He lives his life peacefully, he knows he has to go to school and does his thing. Unfortunately, living far away I lose a lot of his growth, the first girlfriend, the first experiences . He tells me about them, but when I hang out a little, I miss out on so many things “.

With which of the two do you have a closer relationship?

“We are such a close-knit family … Surely with Carola they are always together at the races and she is the only one with whom I can get pissed off”.

Is it easy to work with your sister? Pecco looks at her and laughs.

“Yes, for me yes. I am very easy, she often plays the victim but she is like that”.

For a world title in MotoGP would you be willing to give up…?

“To everything. No, indeed no. Winning the World Cup is a goal that, working as I am working, should not make me give up anything”.

So are you ready to win it this year?

“If we work well, yes”.

Marc Marquez seems to be very competitive back.

“Like in the last races of last year, when he started winning again. The one to the eye could have been a serious injury and luckily it wasn’t, but I would like to remind you that, when he had it in 2011, then he won the first race of the 2012. So he is already used to situations like this, physically he is fine and therefore he will be fit “.

More dangerous him or Quartararo?

“Everyone. Even Pol Espargaro who went very fast in the tests. It is very difficult to understand, let’s see what will happen already in Qatar, even if I think we will have to wait a few races, towards Jerez or Le Mans.”

You signed, Marquez signed and so did Morbidelli. Make your totomarket.

“What will happen I don’t know, it could change everything or even nothing, but Pedro Acosta could be an important name who could arrive in MotoGP because he is going very fast and is already a contender for the Moto2 World Championship. I remember that last year, even earlier from the start I had predicted a possible victory for the title. And in fact … “.