Alessio Salucci: Out of the Shadow, Into the limelight

I bet most of you are thinking who the hell is Alessio Salucci? You’ve seen him hundreds of times at the parc ferme with a yellow towel and cap in his hands, he’s better know by his nickname “Uccio.
”Salucci has been interviewed in the October issue of Riders, here’s a few Q&A’s that let’s us in on some of the aspects of his life.

Uccio and Valentino Rossi have been best friends since they were four years old, but he also works as his personal assistant and drives the Monaco Dynasty motorhome around all the European circuits and get’s his paycheck from Rossi’s management company VR46, along with four other people: Albi, the press officer, Carlo, the accountant, Carlo, his personal trainer and Rossi’s dad, Graziano who’s the CEO.

Do you feel more like a friend, a psychologist or a driver?A real friend, someone you can talk to and to take a load off your chest if you need to.
Valentino is always under a lot of pressure, at the racetrack and even at home, he needs someone like me.

And your paycheck?If I tell you, Valentino will kick my ass.
I can’t complain though, he pays me well, very well.

Don’t you mind living in Valentino’s shadow?No.
I think I’m very lucky guy living this unusual life.
I was good at grabbing the chance.
But I’ve had problems: in small towns there’s a lot of envy and people would gossip about me.
When I was younger it used to really bother me.
People were saying that I was a drunk and an addict.
My mother got so many anonymous phone calls, that you can’t even count them, most of them were: “Your son goes to bed with Vale” (Uccio is engaged to Pamela, who works in a bar in Pesaro) Now I don’t give a damn anymore.
Sure, I’ve done some dumb things in my life, just like everyone else.
Have you ever fought with Valentino?Seriously only once, at 16, because he went with a girl that I liked.
We didn’t talk to each other for a month.
During that period he drove past me with his scooter and I cut across his path with mine and I side swiped him and he fell into a ditch.
He even hurt himself, but by the end of summer we were friends again.
What does Uccio do in his free time?Since 2006, I race cars with Arianna’s dad, (Arianna Matteuzzi, Valentino’s ex-girlfriend).
I did a test at Misano and I was six tenths of second slower than he was and he’s a professional racer.
So we signed up the italian championship for the Vallelunga round with a yellow Viper.
I took the pole position and finshed 1st and 2nd in the two rounds.
I can’t tell you how happy I was.
Then we went to Brno where we finished first and third.
Now I race with a Gallardo and we continue to go fast.
What are you going to do when Rossi retires?I might go work for my mother who’s opened a spa in Tavullia that’s pretty successful.
Maybe Valentino will still need someone like me or maybe I’ll open a biking school.
I might become a personal manager for riders; in all these years I’ve become pretty good at picking out good riders.
But I’m not worried right now because we’re going to be racing for still awhile.
Photo by Marcello Bonfanti for Riders Italian Magazine – issue #24 October 2009