A special boot by Sidi to celebrate the Superbike World Championship won last year, a 2023 that will see him back on track for a specific goal: to try to win again with Ducati. Alvaro Bautista promised it yesterday during his visit to the offices of Sidi, the Maser company that has been supplying him with footwear since (sportingly speaking) as far back as 2009: «In motorcycling, boots must be comfortable and safe, and Sidi also makes them beautiful» , joked the Spanish world champion.
His relationships with our territory go back a long way, since he made his debut in the 2002 World Championship with Aprilia in the 125 class. It was with the Noale team that he won the 2006 125 World Championship, the success that opened the doors to his career. Looking back sixteen years, Bautista sees a very different rider and person: «That first victory brought me so much happiness. I was young, racing against other young riders, I just wanted to celebrate. Last year’s title rather brought me pride: I know what the renunciations and sacrifices were made to get to that World Cup, I know how much I had to improve and overturn myself to do it », he says, and a smile imprints on him face.
His arrival in Superbike with Ducati in 2019 was viewed with suspicion by more than a few Ducatistas, his return to Borgo Panigale last year saw much less opposition: «I convinced the latter by winning the title. Being able to win with the Ducati was something special. I know that I have entered the hearts of all Ducatisti and that I am part of the history of the House, and this has a particular meaning for me,” says the Castilian. Especially since returning to Ducati he was able to re-establish working relationships with the engineer from Scluda Gigi Dall’Igna, who had followed him since his debut in the minor classes of the World Championship.
For a long time he had tried to convince him to switch to Superbike, without ever succeeding: «Now perhaps I wouldn’t make the same choice, but back then it seemed to me that MotoGP was not only the ne plus ultra, but also something indispensable. Now I understand that I’ve never had bikes that allow me to show my full potential, but there’s no going back.” Especially since this Ducati V4R seems to have sewn it on: this year he enjoyed it even more than 2019, the year of his debut in which he burst into flames at the beginning of the season before having to settle for becoming runner-up in the world, but when asked He has no doubts what he would steal from an opponent and from another bike: «I’d steal Marc Marquez’s mentality, but the bike is fine like this: it’s perfect, and I’m not saying it for fun. It’s extraordinary.”
Next year there are many unknowns: the six-time world champion Jonathan Rea and the 2021 world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu will want to dethrone him, and then it will be necessary to understand how it will go with the reigning MotoE and Supersport world champion Dominique Aegerter and with Danilo Petrucci, second in Superbike American after so many years of MotoGP in Ducati. Many unknowns, but one certainty: «It’s clear that I’m going there to win again. It won’t be an obsession, but I do it for that. Otherwise, at 38 and with two girls, I’d stay at home », he promises.
It is probable that in the end he will keep his number 19 on the rear window, perhaps highlighting that number 1 to which he would be entitled as world champion, but in the meantime he is enjoying the limited edition Sidi boot dedicated to his world title and at Christmas he uncorked a bottle of Prosecco Doc, donated by the Consortium that has been supplying sparkling wine to the Superbike and MotoGP World Championships for years: «But I drank a glass or two, no more. It’s getting harder and harder to dispose of.” The next day he was in the gym working on his physique, to be perfected before the start of the season. The one in which he will try to confirm himself as the strongest of all.