ONDUCTING INTERVIEWS WITH MotoGP engineers is a little like being a conquistador searching for El Dorado. You are looking for gold, for the multi-million-dollar secrets hidden inside their brains.
And usually all they do is try to baffle you with bullshit.
I have interviewed Ducati Corse General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna on numerous occasions during the nine years he has been in charge of the factory’s MotoGP project. And during each and every one of these chats I have marvelled at his ability to speak without actually saying anything, to talk at length without revealing a single nugget of technical gold. Why would he want to reveal his hard-learnt secrets to anyone outside his race department in Borgo Panigale?
This interview, however, is different. We are talking about his life in motorcycles, where he came from and how he got to where he is now. Dall’Igna drops his guard and becomes a different man; smiling, joking, telling stories, sharing his enthusiasm for all things two-wheeled.
His journey is quite something: from skint student riding a clapped-out 1970s Vespa around Europe to master of the world’s most advanced motorcycle racing team, which continually unleashes new and controversial technology in MotoGP, from downforce and ground-effect aerodynamics to holeshot devices and shapeshifters.
‘The motorcycle has been something amazing for me since the beginning,’ says the 55-year-old Dall’Igna. ‘But, honestly speaking, I’m a touring rider; I’m not a real sports rider. I love to ride bikes, above
