Here we are at the race that, as always, marks the half of the season. As with every summer break, we try to gather the pros and cons, with ten races already completed and eleven still to go. Our wait can be defined partly rewarded, as it was not exactly what we were looking for. The time for the tenth race arrived, in this first phase, we gave some time to our unexperienced riders to take shape. We are familiar with the formula by now…We are satisfied to have found the right setup for Lunetta, who is currently our fastest rider. Race after race he has proven what he’s made of. Luca came directly from the CEV, bringing with him all his riding style “defects”, but he has been excellent in improving, listening a lot and willingly accepting all the advice from Grana, which has made him strong in everyone’s eyes. He had a great race at Assen and even a better one at Sachsenring, where he almost snatched the pole position from Veijer, getting his first front row! Unfortunately, the race was ruined by a double long lap penalty, taken in an extremely foolish manner, which forced him into a furious comeback that led him to a crash four laps before the end, after an excellent race.
This sudden improvement by Lunetta coincided with Farioli’s crisis, who initially managed to stay ahead of his teammate but now finds himself behind Luca, who consistently competes for the top positions. Unfortunately, when Farioli gets into this mindset, he shuts himself off and he does not listen to reason. Last Saturday this led to a heated discussion in which even his father got involved. His reasoning was very simple: he could not understand how Lunetta could be 19 km/h faster in one corner, insinuating that his teammate’s bike was faster…
How ever the angry outburst must have been beneficial, for that reason I think it is useless to
bottle everything up and hold grudges. On Sunday morning he showed up with a completely different attitude. He decided to follow our advice and listen to Marco, who has many “kilometers” under his belt with Honda, as demonstrated by the results he was able to achieve with some of our riders. On Sunday, Farioli started from the pit lane, again due to another penalty, and this time, I have to agree with the race direction. Seeing all this wandering along the track is truly depressing, unfortunately it often happens even in Motogp.
Let’s move to MotoE: it was not a great weekend for Manfredi, he completely destroyed the bike and I won’t even tell you the value of the damage incurred. These race incidents can happen, but it is frustrating when they occur after only 3 laps during the practice session, while fighting for positions at the back. Roccoli continues to impress me, with his positive approach to face each practice session and his ability to learn on circuits he has never seen before. His attitude and the results he achieves, despite no longer being a ”spring chicken”, lead me to consider him a true rider.
And while we wait for Silverstone, we will lick our (financial) wounds, restore our focus and get ready for the upcoming races. We are approaching an end of the season that will be more hard-fought than ever…with the sound of four-stroke engines. We don’t know if we will secure the top positions in the standings and we don’t expect to win every race, but one thing is certain: I will never stop inciting my guys to do so.
-11… there will be fun, stay tuned!!!
-PaoloSic58-