Michel Fabrizio aims high at the start of the world championship

The seriousness and humility of the young 26-year-old driver Michel Fabrizio, “The Gladiator”, in homage to his Roman character, conceals the grit and determination that led him to aim high in the World Superbike Championship.

Even if the first tests on the Portuguese circuit of Portimao were disturbed by bad weather Fabrizio has been riding with good times and if we consider that he is at his debut on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 and that the bike has yet to be well set up, it is not daring to assume a leading role for the Roman pilot:

“Let’s go slowly, we still have to start the season and the bike has not yet completed the proper development – Fabrizio begins in his presentation at the Parco Golf Club in Rome. From the first contact with the bike the feeling is good but there is work to do and this is why we will be among the first to arrive in Phillip Island in Australia where the world championship will start thanks to a more accurate set-up that has been prevented by bad weather in Portimao. To understand how things are, we will have to wait at least a couple of races , however the fight is fierce and then there is always the rivalry ‘home with the other Roman driver Max Biaggi “.

Already because in the last season the “old” Biaggi (next June 26th is 40 candles …) with his Aprilia RSV4 Factory he took home the world title and this year he would like to try again. Michel Fabrizio, is in his eleventh year in motorcycling competitions, in the past season with Ducati he finished in eighth place and the one with Francis and Patricia Batta’s Alstare Suzuki team is a rentrée as with the same jacket in 2003 he won the title in the Superstock 1000.

This year the Roman driver will be the only driver of the team and will race with the 84, number brings luck and year of his birth: “We know we have to work hard because the level is always higher. Even if Ducati is officially released, in Portimao we have seen that the Borgo Panigale House is more competitive than ever with private companies. This year Melandri is added to the lot of competitors even if it still seems to me not particularly put on show; then of course Haslam and Toseland with the BMW, Rea, Haga, Checa and Corser always ready to slip into the first places … In short, as they say, I don’t take it from home …. “.
To give him support he will find old acquaintances who were already part of the Alstare team 8 years ago, from the chief mechanic Sebastien Delhaye to Stefano Ferro, telemetry engineer.

Michel Fabrizio, for his part, carefully prepared himself under the guidance of a team of experts, from the nutritionist to the athletic trainer : “We do not want to leave anything to chance. I also tested the resistance of the body with a couple of falls and it seems to me that everything is going “Well! I started playing golf because it facilitates the balance between physical and body. But aside from anything else, physical fitness will become a determining factor towards the end of the season when it will be important to arrive in the best possible psychophysical conditions”.

The curtain on the Superbike World Championship will rise next February 27th from the Phillip Island circuit in Australia with twenty riders chasing the title on 13 circuits.

(10 February 2011)