Mattia Guadagnini is part of history in Ducati’s groundbreaking MXGP project, and after three rounds, he’s already showing impressive speed. The young Italian has delivered strong results, including two fourth-place overall finishes, proving both his potential and the competitiveness of the new Ducati machine.
Guadagnini talks about his early-season performances, adapting to the bike, and what it’s like working alongside legendary figures in the sport. He also shares his thoughts on the challenges ahead, including the upcoming test in the deep sand.
GateDrop: Mattia, 3 rounds of your Ducati Adventure into the season, how would you sum it all up and what’s it like being a factory Ducati rider, pretty historic, it’ll go down in the history books?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I’m really happy about the start of the season, I mean we had some problems last weekend, but three races and two fourth overalls, so I can be really happy with that. Of course Argentina was super good, two times fourth, but this one was also good. We had a really good first moto, good start and then I was just surviving with the arm pump, the track was a bit tricky, but yeah I could manage to bring home a safe fourth place. The second moto I had a better feeling honestly, didn’t start so good, but then made some pass in the early laps of the moto, and yeah I made my way up to fifth. After I think half of the moto, then made some mistake in the end, it was raining a little bit and was a bit sketchy on the track, but lost a few places and finished in seventh for fourth overall, so I’m really happy about the day, and yeah just looking forward to get some even better results soon.
GateDrop: And coming into Argentina, what did you really expect, did you surprise yourself with fourth because there was a lot of uncertainties, you know, you haven’t raced MXGP in a while, and a new brand as well, so a lot of unknowns?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I mean, we didn’t have any expectations, we couldn’t have, because the bike is still new, we didn’t know how it was on the starts, how I was on my physical side, because yeah, I’m still getting back in good shape. After the injury in the last part of last year, so we couldn’t expect something that good, but we were really happy with that. Of course we need to build up and I think we’re going to be better and better with the bike, and also me physically. We can’t wait to keep on going, and just try our best always, every weekend.
GateDrop: When did you actually get back on the bike, because I believe you didn’t even have a full off-season?
Guadagnini: Well, it was around December, so it was not too bad.
GateDrop: You’ve been riding the whole way through December?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I just keep on riding. I had some problems in the beginning, I had some problems on the shoulder, and I got sick so many times, so honestly until January I rode not so many times. We were testing a lot, so I think I started the preparation in January, so I didn’t have so much time, but also because I was out for 2-3 months, so yeah, I’m just taking it easy, step by step, and the season is still so long, so I need to get better and better, but easily, like, no stress.
GateDrop: When you first got on the bike, how did you feel? Did the bike have a unique feel, or did it feel like something you’d rode before?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I had straight away the first time a really good feeling, so that helped a lot, because it’s a different bike from any other bike. It’s totally different engine, side frame, suspension, everything is new to me, but I had straight away a good feeling. We did some really good steps on the bike, and now I’m feeling good, we can still do better, that’s the goal of course, and we know, I mean, we can do better. But I had a good feeling from the beginning, which adds some really good confidence to me, and yeah, we’re still building.
GateDrop: You are kind of developing the bike as you go along, obviously you’ve got other guys to do that as well, but you’re quite young, and you’re having to develop, probably quite challenging for a young rider, because you can easily go the wrong direction, and sometimes get lost, but so far it seems to be going quite well. Have you made that many changes since you first got on the bike?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to change so much, because you get confused, and I don’t have the experience still to know what to try, so they’re basically giving me some new parts, and then just say which one is better. I still don’t have the ability to say, this could be better, but I have some good feeling when I try the bike, and I can have a straight comment, so normally we take always the right direction, and that’s important in this moment, because we don’t need to get lost somewhere. But yeah, I’m happy with the bike, we made some really good progress, and this of course is helping me to get some better results, so at the moment I’m happy with the bike, but yeah, we always try to be better.
GateDrop: When you were a Husqvarna rider, you were mainly based in Belgium I believe, now you’re back in Italy, are you enjoying being back in Italy? I think that’s probably a good thing for you.
Guadagnini: Yeah, it’s good, more on the mental side, for me it’s so much easier to be close to home, I’m like living three hours from home, I got back in the place where I was living when I was in the European Championship with the same team, so like a lot of people I know, tracks I know, everything a bit easier for me to organize, like in the organization side. I mean, Belgium was also good, at one point I was a bit scared in the beginning, but then I got good there also, but it’s just different for me, because yeah, in Italy it’s a bit more easy to stay close with the family and the people who support me. We’re going to go to Belgium for the summer training, and we’ll see. At the moment, so far so good.
GateDrop: Within this team, you’re working with so many big names, you’ve got Lupino, you’ve got Cairoli, Maddii, who you’ve worked with before, both of the guys, and Paolo Ciabatti from MotoGP, just what’s it like being involved around these people, every day pretty much?
Guadagnini: I mean, that was like the safe thing of starting a new project, because Ducati is a big brand, and they’re doing so good with MotoGP and World Superbike. I was 100% sure that if they start doing one thing, they want to do it at the best, so that gave me a lot of confidence to start the project. Of course it’s not easy to be competitive from the beginning, but I saw from last year also they had a good bike, and so many good people around this project which want to give the best, and they are really hard workers, so I’m really happy in the position I am now. It’s super special for an Italian rider to represent an Italian brand so happy with how everything is going now, and yeah.
GateDrop: The bike is obviously doing pretty well in hard pack, we’re going to get a big test in a couple of weeks of how it’s going to do in the rough, nasty sand, have you done much sand riding up until now, and how do you feel on the bike so far in the deep sand?
Guadagnini: We went to Sardinia this winter, a few weeks, and I was really surprised of the bike in the sand. Of course until now we just had hard pack races, and it’s working quite good, also most of the training we did was in the hard pack so we didn’t have crazy time in the sand, but I was really surprised with how the bike is working in the sand, so I think we can be still competitive also in a few weeks in Riola.
GateDrop: Just on the contract you signed, is it a one year deal, or is it longer?
Guadagnini: It was one year plus an option of one.
GateDrop: That maybe helps a little bit, take some of the pressure off then?
Guadagnini: Yeah, I mean, I think I’m doing pretty good, so I would love to keep on going every time next year, but it’s still so early, so I didn’t even think about that at the moment.
