(The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood...)
If ever there was a race track that could sell you MotoGP
or showcase the frenzied scenes that Valentino Rossi can create,
it would be Mugello.
Picturesque, historic and very fast:
there is much about Mugello that is distinctly Italian.
Somehow over 100,000 fans find space on the banking
and create an electric atmosphere that
sweeps over the shallow hills.
Every rider loves this track
but when you ride it then it is very difficult,
very demanding physically and – especially - it is very scary
because it is very fast.
For an Italian rider Mugello has a couple of tenths in the hand.
When you arrive here you are faster than normal.
The special thing of Mugello is that in the end the number of people around the track
is like another track!
When you ride the bike you feel more the people
and you feel the people very close.
They have been coming to Mugello for decades.
The circuit groups fans together in the amphitheatre setting.
Dedicated areas exist for particular riders’ fans
and the famous Italian passion for racing means the Gran Premio d’Italia
is motorsport at its most spine-tingling and tribal.
Every year when you arrive the pressure comes very heavy.
It is a good pressure and I am very happy to come here in Mugello.
It is a difficult race for him because being his home Grand Prix
he has a lot of distraction around and a lot of attention for him.
Many people don't really understand that for us it is an important weekend.
All the fans are coming crazy in Mugello.
When you are on the bike and the track
it is special.
It is something special but the price to pay is very high.
We have a lot of guests and a lot of people into the paddock
and we think Mugello is one of the worst!
When you exit everything happens!
People that give the child like this [gestures] for the picture
or try to take the cap.
So it is a battle; is a battle also outside of the racetrack! [laughs].
The passion that you get from having all these fans here:
you have to get up at the crack of dawn to get in here to the circuit
but as you drive through there you just see all these
people arriving, arriving, arriving.
When they all arrived, It is chaos at the gate.
It is classic Italian.
This it is what MotoGP is all about: the passion seen at this particular racetrack.
Mugello is THE race.
Mugello is Valentino’s house.
Every year for the last twenty,
Valentino has in one way or another at thrilled the adoring fans at Mugello.
Valentino Rossi and Mugello go hand-in-hand.
He owned Mugello.
I won many times in Mugello,
seven times in a row
and a lot of times the motivation makes the difference.
I feel the race more, no?
Many, many races in Mugello fighting with Valentino.
We saw what he did for seven years in a row.
In that time in 2006 it was a special weekend for us.
In the beginning I tried to go,
to push him and to keep the advantage but Valentino was always there.
We were fighting a lot in the last couple of laps,
a lot of overtaking and in the end he win.
I fight a lot of times with Capirossi, Loris.
2006 was one of the only times in my career
that I don't remember the last lap.
With Valentino you never know.
It is really easy to lose and it is not so easy to win the race with him.
We were both without any breath because there had been already fifteen overtakes
and from that moment I don't know what happened.
He knows that when I am on the back of him then I try and he do the same always.
Since the turn of the century there is one rider that has made the Mugello experience
truly unmissable for many Italians.
They wave his flags, wear his colours, stick a 46 on their bikes, cars and trucks.
They wait hours for a glimpse of him and storm the fences to catch a droplet of podium champagne.
Now for me it is impossible but a lot of years ago
sometimes I go up the hill Friday night
or Saturday night and it is like hell.
The people are completely drunk from like three days
but it is something like the Woodstock of MotoGP.
In 2010 the dark side of motorcycle racing final caught up with Rossi.
A violent crash on turn thirteen during the second practice session
led to a broken right leg and his first major injury
in thirteen years of Grand Prix racing
It was a very bad experience because a lot of pain
but after I felt a lot of great energy
and this was very important to come back very soon.
Like for a golfer this is St Andrews, for a tennis player it is Wimbledon. For
MotoGP it is Mugello.
Out there is another world but in here we try to keep it normal.
Vale does not change his demeanour at all. He is incredible like that.
We can be under the pump, really struggling
but you wouldn't be able to tell from what is happening by him
and coming here and it being one of his races; it doesn't change at all.
A natural showman, Rossi began playing up to his fans and the media with dedicated liveries
at Mugello around the turn of the century.
In collaboration with friend and designer Aldo Drudi,
Rossi has since made a tradition of unveiling a special helmet each season at Mugello:
2016 is no different.
A long time working with Valentino and many times in Mugello
and I think this is one of the best we have made
We are talking about the official colour of Valentino Rossi.
Full yellow is the base of the helmet
and as you can see it the word Mugello and changing the
meaning to Mugallo and that is the trust of Valentino for tomorrow.
He want to have the whole circuit yellow to have the extra energy for the race.
Another famous helmet was the face. Fantastic face of Valentino’s smiling.
That helmet was one of the most difficult because until Wednesday night
we didn't have any idea.
He explained to me the feeling of riding at Mugello, up and down the hill
and talking about Casanova Savelli which is a famous corner
he makes this fantastic face
and I said ‘whoah stop!
Do it one more time’ I took one picture of his face and I said ‘OK, that is the helmet’.
With the face I think that is the best one and the helmet that made the difference.
Mugello carries a special resonance. It is the one to win
and every victory has been celebrated in Rossi style
with a surprise on the cool down lap.
Italians and coffee, Italians and Mugello, Italians and MotoGP; I don't know there is
just…they are made for it. They just love it.
When you drive in here they are crazy.
They love it, they love being crazy.
You know that it has to be calm.
You can be in the deepest pile of poopa ever
and you have to look like it is under control…and it is not like that.
There are times when we’ve had a crashed bike and we are rolling it out and putting stickers on
and he’s there ready to go.
A win in Mugello is
as good as you can get really.
He is so popular in Italy but then he is so popular in the rest of the world.
Valentino is not just an Italian hero; he is a worldwide hero.
Many Grand Prix riders are hooked to the sheer adrenaline of Mugello.
In ‘94 we came with the scooter. When you arrive here it is a dream.
You say maybe one day I will race inside and have all this crowd around.
You hope but you don't know if it will happen in reality.
After securing pole position on Saturday afternoon
Valentino lit the touch paper to the level of fervour around Mugello.
Upon waking up Sunday morning,
if indeed the thousands who camped on the hills alongside the track did even sleep,
there was a carnival-like atmosphere to greet Valentino’s first appearance on the race track.
Running at the front alongside eventual race winner and teammate Jorge Lorenzo:
Valentino was dealt a cruel twist of fate when His Yamaha M1 suffered a catastrophic engine failure
costing off to the side of the track and rolling to a stop
he watched his challenge for the win, and a seemingly certain podium,
literally go up in smoke.
We came here with a lot of hope and expectation
and the Pole Position he achieved on the Saturday was pretty sensational.
The cruel luck with the mechanical failure and the engine on Valentino’s bike
and what can you say?
We are all terribly disappointed for him
because the race appeared to be his to win.
Vale was well within himself and riding behind Jorge waiting for the right moments
and cruel luck happened where the engine broke.
That’s sport, especially a mechanical sport.
You can’t control everything and sometimes we don't have those things under control
So I’m really sorry for him for the problem that occurred today.
When the chequered flag appeared
we once again witnessed how big a part the crowd plays in Italian motorsport
and were reminded of the immense scenes that Mugello produces each year.
After all the commotion of Mugello 2016, Valentino returned to the relative peace of Tavullia
where the routine continued back at his own private race track: The Ranch.
We’ll pick up the story for the next episode right there