MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

At the Sepang test, I interviewed Cristian Gabarrini, crew chief to Pecco Bagnaia. Bagnaia and Gabarrini were preparing to defend the Italian's first title in MotoGP, and Ducati's first MotoGP crown since Casey Stoner's back in 2007. A championship in which Gabarrini had also played a major role, as Stoner's crew chief. What I wanted to ask Gabarrini was how he was going to approach this defense of the MotoGP crown.

In Valencia, ahead of the final MotoGP event of the 2023 season, I got the chance to follow up on that interview, and ask Gabarrini how this season had played out. When I spoke to him on Thursday, the title was still in play, though Bagnaia went into the last weekend with a useful, though not insurmountable lead of 21 points. Bagnaia started the weekend as favorite, and would make good on his status, becoming the first Ducati rider to ever successfully defend a title with a victory in the last race of the year.

In many ways, that final weekend was emblematic for Bagnaia's entire season. The factory Ducati rider lost 7 points on Saturday, finishing fifth in the sprint race which was won by title rival Jorge Martin. But Bagnaia emerged victorious by a calm and considered race on the Sunday, by looking after his tires and having something extra at the end of race to hold off challenges by Fabio Di Giannantonio and Johann Zarco.

That was one of the topics which I discussed with Gabarrini in this interview. Gabarrini explained that Bagnaia's strength – the ability to manage tire wear over full race distance – became a weakness he had to work on in the Saturday sprint races. We covered much more besides: from how Bagnaia has matured and grown as a rider in 2023, to fighting for a title on the same bike as your main rival, to sharing a car to the airport with Daniele Romagnoli, crew chief to Jorge Martin, the man Bagnaia had to beat to successfully defend his crown. Gabarrini is, as ever, a thoughtful, modest, and intelligent interview subject, who offers a deep insight into what it takes to succeed in MotoGP.

Q: Earlier this year, at the Sepang test, I asked you how you were planning to go about defending the title you and Pecco Bagnaia won in 2023. How has the season been? Has it worked out as you expected?

Cristian Gabarrini: It's difficult to say what you expect at the beginning of the year. For sure, we defended it a lot, because sometimes we had the advantage, sometimes we had to recover a failure, let's say. Because if you crash, you have a zero in your book. And a zero is very heavy when you aim to win a championship. And we did it several time this year, sometimes because of us, sometimes not because of us. Anyway, we did it. Because we have five zeroes. And despite this, we are still leading the championship. So we never gave up and we were never more relaxed than normal, mainly because of this.

Q: At the start of 2022, Pecco was quite upset. It was difficult because you were testing so many things right up to the start. It seems like this year, you changed the approach completely. I think on the last day of the Portimão tests you were basically almost just burning rubber, you were ready to go racing. There was much less work to do. Did that help?

CG: Compared to last year? For sure we were more ready, but every time you have a new bike, - and you can test just a few days, because at the end, in the last years the tests are always less and less - you start always with a big question mark. And so as I said, we were in a better position, compared to 2022.

But anyway, we we had to fix different things to be at least competitive at the same level we were when we finished 2022. So the very first part of the championship we used it also to fix some details, and then we were ready. But it started for sure in a easier way compared to 2022.

Q: At the start of the season Pecco seemed to fall back into making mistakes. Especially for example Austin. I remember him crashing out of the lead?