Valencia 1st round, the last run of CEV.
We were in the list, fighting for the podium with Garcia in a difficult season finale. We ended up with a 5th place and a crash. Dreams of glory postponed.
But let’s do a summary of this year: it has been interesting for sure, we “raised” these puppie riders like Senna, our Australian kid in Moto3 or like Garcia who gave us great satisfactions fighting and taking home podiums and victories. Voight, on his debut in ETC, gave us exciting podiums, he grew up with us and that’s why he has been promoted up in CEV Moto3. We took Volpi in our team when he was just a kid and he became a rider, we close a chapter very important for both, made of beautiful and difficult moments, but I hug him and I give him the biggest good luck for next year.
The team is a fantastic group, a mix of the most different nationalities, characters and personalities, that mashed up in something perfect; the Spanish with their energy and passion, the Australian cold and meticulous, and the Italians… well, you already know them. They can joke when they can and be professional when it’s time to be. We can be ironical and self-critic and this is our plus value.
The harmony I saw on Sunday when they were changing Garcia’s engine in a record-time, when fastness and precision made them look like professional dancers on the stage, it left me enchanted. In the same way, I’m enchanted to see them so proud to wear the SIC58 in their uniform. But I think this armony would break without the supervision and professionality of our three chief technicians: Federico, Patrizia and Fabio. I want to thank all of them for their great work.
We’re almost ready to fly off to Valencia again for the double race of this freakish WorldChampionship. Almost everybody knows that Antonelli won’t ride with us next year. But I want to say a few things: Niccolò has been an essential rider for us, he made us grow as a team, he gave us the first Pole and the first victory of the team in the Moto3 World Championship, and those are the things that will remain forever, whatever words will be said about us. He is a special guy, very polite, he lives to race, which is rare nowadays and I hope with all my heart that he will find his road and that he will find someone who will be able to make him win the title because he deserves it. I hope we will meet again on Monday to comment the race and that the next year he’ll be back to me with this words: “Paolo, we are too strong!” with the same glittery and fighting eyes he had in Doha. 2018.
-PaoloSic58-