Diego Gubellini: “We will adopt the same strategy”

Diego Gubellini has been in the Grand Prix paddock for almost 25 years. Passed by Gresini, Marc VDS, Aprilia, the Italian has been evolving since 2019 alongside fabio quartararo, first within the Petronas Yamaha team. He then accompanied the Frenchman into the official structure of the firm with three tuning forks.

It's no secret that the relationship between a driver and his chief mechanic is one of the keys to success. Since the start of the season, Quartararo has five victories and no less than 10 podiums. These results allow the Niçois to play a first match point in around ten days at the Emilia-Romagna GP, the second meeting of the season on the Misano circuit.

For Gubellini, nothing will change in the way we approach this event. “As for pressure, it’s more or less the same as always,” he tells us. At the start of the second part of the season, we understood that we could fight for the title. Every race is important. There is pressure, because we are a factory team. She is always there. Nothing has really changed from a few races before. »

🥇 #MotoGP Riders Championship

The biggest prize of all could be decided at the #EmiliaRomagnaGP! ????

Dog @PeccoBagnaia provide a Misano repeat to delay @FabioQ20's coronation? 👑

1⃣F Quartararo – 254 Pts
2⃣ F Bagnaia – 202 Pts pic.twitter.com/z8yg4MroVJ

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 13, 2021

To be titled, Quartararo must not concede more than two points to Pecco Bagnaia in Misano (and the Italian must not win). However, the chief engineer will adopt a similar strategy, even if the conditions look different. “I would say we will follow the same as usual,” he said. We are going to Misano for the second time this season. We had a good race there the first time. So at least we have some data to fall back on. At this time of year, temperatures will be cooler than the first time. We have to keep in mind that this can change some points on the tires. However, the approach should be the same as we had in previous races. »

During the San Marino GP, Quartararo only missed three tenths to deprive Bagnaia of victory. After the official test organized on the same Misano circuit after the GP, have the Frenchman and his chief mechanic put their finger on something to gain the upper hand over Bagnaia and the Ducati? “We haven't made a big improvement,” admits Gubellini. We mainly focused on the new bike for next year and some things we can use in the next races. We haven't found something that will allow us, say, to be a second faster (laughs), but just some small details. »

A few more days to wait before perhaps witnessing the coronation of the first French driver in the premier category...