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 MotoGP standings.
Rossi celebrated in the Ducati garage - a place where he has had little reas🐽on to celebrate in the past - with Bagnaia and some familiar faces.
“Very well ꩲdone,” 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 the practices, he struggles, Q1…”
Christian Gabbarini, Bagnaia’s crew chief, added: “🍷If he starts the weeꩵkend off well, then he gets distracted.”
And Rossi emphatically agreed: “Exactly, that’s the problem! If he starts strong, gets pole, domiꦦnates, 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 pen♔alty, maybe…”
Bagnaia joked: “I would have crashed!”
Rossi: “Yo𒆙u would have been ahead of everyone, alone, wondering what to do!”
The seven-time MotoGP champion and all-time legend was in Jerez to oversee his Mooไney VR46 t🦩eam.
Marco Bezzecchi had been an early leader in the standing♍s but lost out to Bagnaia, a fellow 🥂graduate of the VR46 Academy, in Jerez.
Rossi is al🥃so facing a long-term 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 journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything f♋rom American sports, to football, to F1.
