Valentino Rossi’s private chat in the Ducati garage revealed: “If Francesco Bagnaia gets over-confident, he screws it up”
Bagnaia won the Spanish MotoGP, in front of his mentor who had won six premier class races at Jerez, to claim the lead in the MotꦐoGP standings.
Rossi celebrated in the Ducati garage - a pl💫ace where he has had little reason to celebrate in the past - with🤪 Bagnaia and some familiar faces.
“Very well done,” Rossi said as he hugged Bagnaia. “You were the one who had tyre left at the end. You were perfect.▨”
Bagnaia replied: “I was careful.”
Rossi then told Ducati engineers:✱ “I told him that it’s when he doesn’t start off well.
“When he’s bad in tꦡhe practices, he struggles, Q1…”
Christian Gabbarini, Bagnaia’s crew chief, added: “If he starts the weekend off well, then he gets distra꧅cted.”
And Rossi emphatically agreed: “Exactly, th🐼at’s the problem! If he starts strong, gets pole, dominates,ﷺ all that stuff, then his cockiness gets the better of him.
“He gets over-confident then he screws it up.
“If he starts far off, then he’s perfect.”
Rossi then said🌊 to Bagnaia: “Who knows, if they hadn’t given you that penalty, maybe…”
Bagnaia joked: “I would have crashed!”
Rossi: “You would haveꦐ been ahead of everyone, alone, wondering wha🧸t to do!”
The seven-time MotoGP champion and all-time legend w♍as in Jerez to oversee his Mooney VR46 team.
Marco Bezzecchi had been an early𝓰♊ leader in the standings but lost out to Bagnaia, a fellow graduate of the VR46 Academy, in Jerez.
Rossi is also facing a long-te🌺rm decision of whether to keep his Mooney VR46 team using Ducati bikes or switch to Yamaha, the team where he made his name, and where he has recently signed an unrelated ambassadorial deal.
James was a sports journalist꧙ at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to foo🥀tball, to F1.
