You’ve worked with both riders. How was Maverick to work with? How was Aleix to work with?

“I can’t say if one is better of the other, because both Aleix and Maverick are excellent people and to me it would be like to choose the best of my two ‘sons’ if I had to pick my favourite. For sure they are very different; and, they have changed a lot in these two years. Unfortunately, Aleix went through a difficult season in 2016, as he struggled to find effectiveness with the machine and incurred some crashes. Despite this hard situation, he proved to be a solid and reliable rider, deserving his role of factory rider. He kept on, never gave up; and helped the engineers to develop the machine. To me he was a perfect example of reliability, consistency and strength. Maverick impressed me – and many others in the team – when he arrived in Sepang for the first test of 2016. It was clear that he was not the rookie any longer and he introduced himself as strongly motivated and fit. He was in perfect shape, but also his mentality increased a huge amount during winter. It was already clear that with a competitive bike he would achieve the desired results in the season. This was impressive to me; at only 21 years old he was already a grown-up rider and man. This had implications also in his work with media as his attitude became stronger, wiser and he was more focused.”

What is your best moment – or most emotional - this year at Team SUZUKI ECSTAR?

“More than the funniest thing, I will always remember one of the most emotional things we did as a team. When the riders came in to the pit after the last race in Valencia, they found the whole team waiting for them outside the garage, in the pit lane. It wasn’t planned, the idea came right in that moment to our Team Co-ordinator Roberto Brivio and simply we all felt we wanted to get outside and welcome them like a big hug. We went out and created a corridor into two wings of people where they arrived with the machines and we all shared the sadness of the goodbye, but also the satisfaction with the successes achieved in the season. This is what makes us a real family; the best moments come without any planning, we just felt we were acting as if were one.”

What’s your saddest moment or memory of 2016 – and why?

“Needless to say, the saddest moment was when we knew about Maverick’s decision to leave Team SUZUKI ECSTAR in 2017. Not only because we had big expectations of him with Suzuki, but also because that meant finishing an era and that we had to rebuild a team, changing both riders. Of course, we are all happy for the new riders, Iannone and Rins, but it took me some time to set myself and reorganise the program and the planning.”

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