Legendary Italian Antonio Cairoli shared some fascinating insights on how things are going with the exciting Ducati project when speaking to Paul Malin and Lisa Leyland on the MXGP Studio Show last weekend. Here are some typed up extracts of this quality interview with the great man.
Question: Tony, great to see you. New colours for you as well, as we can see the Ducati red. New bike, new everything – how is it all going?
Cairoli: Developing the bike is going well together with Alessandro Lupino, who is racing some Italian Championship races, so we are bringing the bike also to some racing slowly. But it takes time with these new projects, but we are happy at the moment.
Question: Many people thought when you stopped racing you’d just carry on being a KTM ambassador and all this kind of thing, but obviously it’s clear you like a new challenge and I guess no bigger challenge than developing a brand new motorcycle from the very bottom and building it up to the top – how has that been for you?
Cairoli: Yeah, I mean I’ve been so many years with KTM, of course. I mean, for me, it was a family and we won a lot together. But this new challenge, I took it really seriously when Ducati contacted me. For sure, it was not an easy decision after such a relationship, but, you know, the pride of being Italian and bringing the possibility of Ducati to the top of the MXGP class, and having it developed by me as much as possible, it was really interesting for me.
Question: You have your best buddy alongside you now in Alessandro Lupino. I guess you’re spending a lot of time together riding and testing and you’re still having fun I’m guessing?
Cairoli: Yeah I’m having a lot of fun, of course, because I don’t have the pressure to show stuff at the moment. And, I mean, I did in all of my career have a lot of pressure every year that if I was second or third for me it was losing. So now it’s just enjoying things and just enjoying pure racing, you know, if I’m on the bike and training and whatever I still enjoy it a lot.
And also seeing the bike progressing so well, it’s also really satisfying. Both me and Alessandro are really going in the same direction and that makes the job way easier and the results will show soon.
Question: Growing up in Italy, you’ve had the experience of a lot of iconic Italian motorcycle and car brands and this kind of thing, but obviously the biggest, most legendary brand in motorcycles is Ducati. How important is it to you to be an Italian riding and representing Ducati and how important is it to your fans as well I’m guessing – it’s quite a quite a big thing?
Cairoli: Yeah, I mean, it’s a huge thing because with Ducati, same as Ferrari in the cars, you have fans that are just fans of the bike you know. They’re really, really with the heart 110%, giving everything for the brand. So it’s kind of a different fan base, you know. But, of course, you know being Italian and being on this iconic Italian bike brings even more interest in everything and it’s really, really surprising me a lot this.
Lead Image: Ducati
