Immediately a good impression. This is what Fabio Di Giannantonio did to the VR46 team on the first and only day of post-season testing which took place a few weeks ago at the Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, also the scene of the last race of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship which crowned Francesco Bagnaia 2 times world champion.
The Roman rider, having discarded the Gresini Racing team suit, put on the black one and climbed onto the VR46 team's Ducati Desmosedici GP23 which until a few hours earlier had belonged to Luca Marini. After a few hours of learning the bike and the team, Di Giannantonio achieved an important lap time, leaving his new team with excellent sensations for the 2024 season.
Alessio Salucci, better known as “Uccio” and now team director of VR46, explained why he chose Di Giannantonio to replace the departing Marini. Not a question of the transfer market, with Fabio left free after Marc Marquez's arrival in Gresini Racing, but rather because he was impressed by his performances in the last 2 months of the season.
“I was very happy with Fabio straight away and I expect… him to go strong. Because it's not true that he only went strong before or after signing. He went strong for two months straight”, explained Salucci to the microphones of the press, including Motorsport.com.
Uccio, before making the choice and taking Di Giannantonio, also spoke with Gigi Dall'Igna, director of Ducati Corse to try to explain the progress made by the former Gresini rider in the second part of the season.
“I analyze things, race by race, shift by shift, and he literally changed gear. I also spoke with Dall'Igna about this to also understand the technical motivation and he told me that it's never just one motivation.”
“There are always 3 or 4 aspects that change the situation. And so he put together a shock absorber that works, a mapping with the gas underneath that he was missing. He put a bit of motivation into it. And consider in any case that at that level all the riders are really strong – And then Di Giannantonio arrived”.
In the only day of testing held with VR46, Di Giannantonio impressed Salucci and the team not so much with the (good) flying lap, but with the pace he managed to maintain with used tyre.
“Now I would like him to pick up where he left off. The first test with us was fantastic, a great approach, he got the seventh fastest time, he did 1'30″2 with a set of tires that already had a few laps. That's the thing to see, rather than the time attack. I'm very happy, he got on well with the team and we hope he continues to go strong”, concluded Salucci.
#MotoGP #Uccio #Diggia #It39s #strong
