MotoGP Feature - The Sete Gibernau Interview
01/08/2006
Sete Gibernau is hoping for his luck to change for the better in the second part of the MotoGP season. The first 11 rounds, up to the summer break, have not been especially kind.
The 33-year-old Spaniard, twice World Championship runner up, has had a career on factory Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda machines.
Now in his first season with the Ducati team, and on Bridgestone tyres, he has proved how quickly he has adapted, with three front-row starts including pole position at the Italian GP.
But various problems have dented his race results. His best so far is fourth at Qatar. The problems include an almost unheard-of mechanical failure, and the freak incident of a toe-slider getting ripped off his boot mid-race. Not to mention an injury that meant missing races for the first time in ten years of GP racing.
“There are two ways to look at how this season has gone,” he said, speaking shortly before the season break … and before he discovered that the collar-bone broken at Catalunya will require further surgery after problems with healing.
“One is the standings. I would like to say a bad word, but I won't. Another way is that our team won the first race with Loris (Capirossi), which proved we’d achieved one of our goals … to be competitive from the beginning.
“We were competitive. But I believe that the other guys have chipped away at us, while our level is more or less the same. I think on that side we haven't been able to improve enough.
“For me, you can see it as a bad year. But I think that, if you look at the big screen, the bike is working a lot better than last year, and also the Bridgestone tyres. I look at that, and think that one day the results will come back. In fact I’m positive they will, to repay all the work and suffering and the bad moments of the year.”
The worst moment came in the run to the first corner at his home race, the Catalunya GP. Sete was in the thick of a multiple pile-up, and the worst injured, with a broken collar-bone. He puts it firmly behind him.
“I can't remember the crash, so that's cool. I don't want to see it on TV. A crash is always bad, but we’ve crashed enough to understand what you have to do to come back. I have never missed a race in grand prix since I started in 1997. That was a weird sensation for me.”
“But you know it makes you think and it really made me understand that my desire is bigger than ever – to come back here and prove what I can do. On the track and not just talking. I want my results to talk for me.”
Gibernau took on a difficult task – switching not only from a V5 Honda to a V4 Ducati, but also from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres. Which had been the harder switch?
“The whole package is different, and sometimes you have to play a little bit with both. Try to adapt the bike with the tyres and also the tyres to the bike. You can’t pinpoint one or the other for good or bad results. But I think both are doing a great job. The reason I came to Ducati is because I had a manufacturer behind me. At Honda, I was in a satellite team. I can't be happier on that side,” concluded Gibernau.
The next race will take place at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic on Sunday 20 August.