Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

bad year. And look what is happening to Cadalora now - he is also his own manager." Pernat looks back to Max's roots to try to understand the psychology of a man who doesn't play the friendship game, who sets psychological mind-traps not only out on the track but also in the paddock, both inside and outside his own pit - but who is so darned fast that any factory team will make as many compromises as they can in order to have him on board. "Everybody in the world has their psychology shaped by what ~appens in their life, especially their early life," says Pernat. What happened to Max was important in shaping the difficult but awe-inspiring character of today. "When he was very young, very soon after he was born, Max's mother went out of the famil y. His fa ther was... not a perfect man. The result was that Max became a loner. And he is a loner for life: "Life was very difficul t for him when he was young. Now, he wants to be a king, and he wants to show that he doesn't need anybody else." On the track, however, this confidence, driven though it may be by the determination bred of insecurity, is devastating. Pernat is clear on why Max is just so successful, beyond the obvious fact of his talent. "It is a combination of factors. One big reason is that he was born with Aprilia. What I mean is that his whole feeling of motorcycling came in the first place from riding an Aprilia. "When he was a teenager, he played football (soccer). He didn't race motorcycles. He was already 18 or 19 when he first raced in Italy (in the Aprilia Cup on a production 125), and then he immediately joined Aprilia to race a 250 to win the European Championship in 1991. Apart from one year with Erv Kanemoto and the Honda (in 1993), all his racing experience has been on the Aprilia." Max's bond with his machine is intimate and strong, continues Pernat. "It represents his whole racing experience. This has strengthened him in a very excellent way. At first, the bike was not changed very much especially for him. He grew into it. In the last couple of years with the team he has learned a lot. He has really applied himself to gain the technical knowledge, so that now he has the ability to change the bike to suit himself. "His natural talent is very strong. You can see him when he finishes a race - when he wins a race. He gets off the bike, and he is very calm, not breathing fast, very quiet." (Apart, of course, from the shows of exuberance and helmet-tossing that he lays on for the crowd.) "His approach to racing is very professional. He spends at least two hours every day training. At the start of this season he was two or three kilograms lighter than last year. I don't know how many other 250 riders put in that sort of effort. I would say that last year he was' at about 90 percent sure of himself. ow it is 98 percent." "He is so strong in every way. Mentally very strong. He destroys his competitors with his mind. He uses every advantage of psychology with other riders... and he is very intelligent. You could see what happened with (Loris) Capirossi." (In their epic struggle of 1994, the former double 125cc champion became erratic and flustered.) "He wants only enemies. Harada's biggest problem is always Biaggi." and others have complained.) "Their engine is good, but not their handling." Does this make Blaggi complacent? Not likely: "He is very complicated, psychologically. He is a strange person. Though that is not unusual in a top rider. "There are always battles within the team. He loves to show he is the strong man:Each day there is some argument he wants something out of the normal. One day he will be upset, the next day he is lovely, the next day he wants something difficult. He wants to be the only Aprilia rider, but that is very diffi-' cult for me, because we are a factory, Pernat is also aware that Max has fate on his side this year, both because several strong 250cc riders have left the class like Tadayuki Okada, Kenny Roberts Jr. and Jean-Michel Bayle, and Capirossi the year before; and because the rival machines have faltered somewhat, each in its own way. "There is no challenge this year. The Yamaha engine is no good - we could see that from early in the season. You could even see it in Harada's face after the first race. "Honda have made a mistake with the chassis." (It is notoriously sensitive and difficult to set up, as RaJf Waldmann not a team, and I must protect the interests of the other riders. I think sometimes he is too much the star. It comes from his insecurity." Rainey does not have the advantage of such a close-up view, but he does have a different perspective - that of a rider who has himself scaled the heights of perfection, as well as a burgeoning team manager whose hope of a first World Championship in that role have been dashed by the Italian's extraordinary prowess this year. "The thing-about Max is his preparation," Rainey said. "He-figured out early in his career what he needs, and he went out to make sure he got it. He has a really good focus on winning. His riding style also suits the Aprilia a lot. Basically the bike's been built round him. You can see from his riding that he's totally familiar with pretty much everything it's going to do. "Don't forget that his Aprilia's engine is really good. Consider the way (Marcellino) Lucchi went in Italy, in just one GP. (He was second as a· Wild card.) And how fast (EskiI) Suter's bike is. (The Swiss privateer has a '95 works machine.) "Aprilia are really serious about racing. They test twice a week, every week. They have a full-time test rider on th,e job. Put all that together, and you have a combination." But Rainey is convinced that Harada could give him a run for it, if he didn't have problems of his own. And it's not the switch to Michelin tires. "Tetsuya could learn to adapt, if only the bike would let him. But the Yamaha has a serious engine problem with throttle snatch between 8,000 and 10,000 rpm - just where you tum the throttle on in the corner. Control at that point is vitally important, and it means he just can't ride the bike to his ability. "We're all working on fixing it, but the way Max has built up such a lead, we'll need for him to have a big hiccup if there's any chance of catching him." Certainly, nothing short of a series of non-finishes cou Id haul Max within hailing distance in the championship. Meanwhile, he is already looking ahead. He wants to go 500 racing, and he wants to do it on a Honda. And this might not be so easy, says Rainey. "What I'm seeing with CapirQssi (his 500cc-c1ass rider)' as well as with Bayle and (Kenny Roberts) Junior is how much they still have to learn. They're going good, but it's going to take two or three yeats before they'll really be at their peak. "It's hard moving from a 250 to a 500, because you have to ride them so differently. I think it's probably easier coming from a Superbike to a GP 500 than from a 250. Max could find that a problem." It is this factor that Pernat hopes will operate in his favor, to keep Max with Aprilia, riding the 400 in 1987. As every racing insider will agree, the prospect of this massive 250cc talent applying his skills to the increasingly impressive overgrown version of the Aprilia V-twin is extremely exciting. "It would be a very beautifuJ thing," says Pernat. The problem is money. Paddock rumor has it that Max's asking price is in excess of $1 million - the sort of fee commanded by established riders of high quaility, rather than class rookies. "Aprilia cannot afford that," says Pernat. "I think it is crazy to ask so much. This is not Formula One racing. It is motorcycle racing. There is a limit." Max is a man used to flirting with lintits, however, and he does it better than most. And whatever he does ride when he gets to the 500cc class, his opponents should beware. £N

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