Among the absolute protagonists of elite motorcycling between the early 2000s in MotoGP and from 2011 to 2020 in Superbike, Marco Melandri was one of the spearheads of Italian motorcycling, by virtue of the 2002 world championship victory in the “250” class, the second world position in MotoGP in 2005 behind only Valentino Rossi and the 22 victories achieved in his career, both in the world championship and in Superbike. Interviewed by the Spanish newspaper “Relevo”, the man from Ravenna spoke about the differences between the current era of the top class and that of the early 2000s: “Otoday even a satellite Ducati has its own electronic engineer. It wasn’t like that back then because it was the beginning of electronics. The telemetry technicians were trying to be engineers. There wasn’t the same level of training”.
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Marco Melandri: “At the time we had an inferior bike compared to the officials”
Melandri’s sporting longevity and the consequent experience gained in several eras of motorsport, all of which he experienced with merit as a protagonist, allowed him to launch into an accurate analysis between the new and old world of MotoGP: “The official team is the point of reference now, where you can work on the development and improvement of the bike. In my case I didn’t feel like I was in the official team in 2003 because they were working for 2004. As for the satellite team, just think that in the first race in South Africa I had a bike with a “big bang” engine, while in another I dropped on the track with a “screamer” engine.
A clear difference compared to today, where the level of the riders and the overall balance of the premier class are encouraged by a clear distribution of competitive bikes and technical packages: “It wasn’t like today, where you have seven engines for the season. At the time everything was open. For example, I received used engines from Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checawhich already had many kilometres. We had a much inferior bike, that’s objective. Only the official team could give you an advantage, even in terms of software and electronics, the satellite team had to understand everything from scratch.”
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