SBK Rinaldi: “To become champion you have to swallow bitter pills. Alvaro the perfect team-mate”

Michael Ruben Rinaldi concluded the 2022 season in fourth place overall. Compared to the previous year, he won less but scored more consistent results. Looking back, the Italian considers where he might improve in order to aim for the title: “This was my second year with the team and I won less if we consider my three races in 2021, but I scored more points and secured a great overall result. I couldn’t do more, mainly because the top three were on another level. I was close, but not enough to be able to do more. The aim was to finish top three, but they were just too strong. My result is no small thing, but I want to be up front with them. I’m pleased anyway because we ran a more consistent season compared to the year before.”

 

A champion as team-mate

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Alvaro Bautista brought the title back to Ducati, something Michael was very pleased to see, but watching your team-mate win with the same bike as you will always raise questions that are difficult to answer. “When you see your team-mate winning, it gnaws at you, or rather it increases the hunger you have to go out and win the title too. Alvaro, Toprak and Rea have this ability to always run up front. This is a difference between MotoGP and SBK right now, because in the world championship there’s more variation up front, but here you have to be really consistent and very few manage it. The only guy who was able to beat Rea was Toprak, who interrupted his winning streak, and now Bautista. But for a while now it’s been just the three of them fighting for the win. I can say that I’m at my personal best right now and am happy.”

 

100% is not enough

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The aim is to win and the dream is to triumph at the end of the year but it’s tough in these conditions and at this level, and you have to perfect the smallest details to achieve the final result. “The three best riders never make mistakes and to stick with them, you have to be 100%, and sometimes even that is not enough. If you’re running at 90%, you’ll be behind, maybe finishing fifth. This season, I had great race pace, if I’d ridden like that in 2021 I’d have finished ten seconds ahead of the guy behind.”

 

Plans for winter

The key to improving undoubtedly has to do with working hard this winter, in order to be as prepared as possible for the new season. Rinaldi knows this, and already has a well-structured training plan: “On 12 December I’ll start with a new training plan because I’m good and am just lacking in terms of my ability to win. I need to improve my skills so that I can also be competitive in difficult conditions. Look at Phillip Island for example, where the damp track conditions didn’t help me. You can only improve this by riding. So as soon as it stops raining, I’ll be out on the supermotard trying to work on this.”

 

Michael: “Bautista the best team-mate I’ve ever had”

When they win the title on the other side of the garage, your self-esteem takes a knock, but this wasn’t exactly the case with Alvaro: “If your team-mate wins it’s a blow to your ego but you have to hold on because sooner or later the results will come. In SBK right now, you can’t hope to come in and immediately thrash everyone because the guys up front are too strong. You need to be humble and understand where you can improve. Alvaro is definitely the best team-mate I’ve ever had. We talk a lot and there’s mutual respect which helped me a lot. He’s taught me to persevere, to be humble, and to recognise that results will ultimately come with hard work. You can tell he’s a great person in that a man of his experience, at 38, is still trying to improve and learn alongside a 26-year old like me. He has never stopped giving it his all and would be up at 5am, always persevering – this is something I can learn from him.”

 

You have to swallow bitter pills to reach the top

All champions and athletes in general have to take criticism throughout their careers and turn this into something that can push them to improve. The Italian rider has experienced this for himself and has this to say: “Living with all the talk that surrounded and surrounds me is not easy, it’s annoying, but you have to understand that when you’re on a factory team you’re at the centre of attention and there are no excuses. When I was in Stock 1000, anything that came my way was a ‘bonus’. Now you have to achieve the goal, you have to man up in this respect - you’re no longer an 18-year old hoping that your talent will take you places without the right preparation. Everyone in my world has had to eat shit before becoming a champion and I’ll do it too.”