Fausto Gresini was at the the Bologna Motor Show yesterday, a guest at the Gazzetta dello Sport stand and the naturally the interview was about his late rider, Marco Simoncelli and how difficult the Italian manager finds the motivation to continue.
“It ’s always difficult because even if it seems that a lot of time has past since Sepang, infact it’s been very little and the wound is still open.
It’s clear that life must go on, you have to react, raise your head.
You have to raise your head and start to fight because that’s what Marco would have wanted.
However there’s a very deep emptiness and sorrow because the pain of this tragedy will always be with us.
”That said, we have a lot of things to do, but I don’t feel the same as before.
I’ve always loved bikes, but right now I can not love them as before, because I feel as if I’ve been betrayed.
I still have to get over it and it’s a bit hard.
But I have many fond memories of Marco, I like to think of him as he was, always sunny and positive, never angry.
Deespite his young age, he taught us many things that we’ll treasure in our future.
He was a guy who was able to communicate and he knew how to fight, win and lose always with the same smile.
He was a true sportsman and I’d like to remember him that way.
The only thing that he had missed was a victory.
“ When asked to describe the Simoncelli with a single adjective Gresini said: “I don’t think I have never known another person like him, so I would say irreplaceable.
Marco was different from everyone.
He was a special guy because he always addressed problems with a smile.
I don’t think I ever saw him angry.
Infact even when we had problems he was the one who raised the team’s morale and always defending them.
He created a truly extraordinary symbiotic relationship with them.
I’d never seen him tense, he didn’t know what fear was.
He was a simple guy, he loved motorcycles and when he was racing it was always to win”.
Asked about the Sepang crash, Gresini cleared both tration control and tires which many blamed for the fatal accident, “Traction control was not a factor in the accident.
When the bike crashed Marco was going 40 km/h.
He rarely let the bike go, because he was a fighter.
When he went down, he remained hanging on for several meters, leaving a long black stripe on the asphalt.
He also picked a tire that he knew would penalize him at the start of the race, but would help in the finale.
He knew that he would struggle in the first laps, but he slipped and tried to hold up the bike with his knee.
Unfortunately with the steering locked, the front wheel regained grip and put him back in the middle of the track.
Accidents like this rarely happen because when you fall the bike takes you towards the outside.
We’ve said many times that it would have been different if he had let go, but with ifs you can’t change things, perhaps it was just his time.
Even Edwards and Valentino couldn’t do anything to avoid him.
We have made giant steps forward in regards to safety gear, but Marco was unlucky because he was hit in the neck, which is the only part of the body that isn’t protected.
“Talking about the final race of season, Gresini added, “Going to Valencia was like an act of violence for me.
I wasn’t ready to go, but forced myself to do so.
The times dictated it to me and I couldn’t risk losing such an important weekend.
To move forward you have to put in heart, determination and desire, but it was very difficult because I wasn’t ready to face that race.
At least seeing all those people who came with #58 was some comfort because we realized even more that Marco was great personality, who would have done so much for this sport.
I didn’t think he was already so loved by the public.
However, the Valencia race was very sad.
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