#Alberto puig

[repsolhonda]

PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA – Luca Marini laughing with Alberto Puig during a delayed session at Australian Grand Prix 2024

📸: Gold and Goose via Motorsport Images

[42bakery]

'Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it'.

This is a quote that Alberto said to Dani when they started at the Movistar Joven Activa Cup when they where starting.

This has been so important for Dani that put it in his last helmet when he wanted to show who he was at the start of his career and what he was when he ended it.

Source: 12+1 títulos sobre la mesa and Cuatro Tiempos

[dare-g]

The Strange Case of Doctor Faust (1969)

[waru-chan8]

Okay, I have a small challenge(?) for you, since you’re a Dani Pedrosa fan. I’ve watched a lot of interviews and press conferences with him, but since Dani is kind of shy and/or private, it’s hard to pinpoint certain personality traits, like I know him but not really.

So, could you describe Dani Pedrosa to me as the person he is? What traits and small things have you noticed about him? Both good or bad traits please!

Thank you!

Hi anon 👋👋👋 I'll do my best because I don't know him personally and I can only talk about what he has done or act in interviews.

Dani is indeed shy and private and that made him look bad towards media. Or at least it used to be a problem when he was young. I remember so media tittles and it just implied Dani was at war with all the journalist as he preferred to be elsewhere except there. I think he has said it in the past, but Dani would have loved to race when media and media training was not a thing because he hate it so much. It takes a while for him to warm up and talk, but a way to do it is start talking about bikes and then his on track and out of the track experiences will follow.

We all have seen Dani as someone serious, but apparently he is a prankster. No one was safe at Honda when he was Marc's teammate. And according to Marc, when they where at Japan... well havoc happen. Apparently once Dani ended up on someone else shoulders dancing and singing shitless (Valencia Pres conference 2018).

He seems to be a bit obsessive in the sense he needs to know everything surrounding the bike. There's no need for him to go to the factory, but he is there a lot, he talks with the riders and "coaches" them. And his job description doesn't include that. He is passionate. A lot, and that makes him a good pundit because he explains stuff in way that everyone can comprehend. Another pundit (a mechanic/technic) sad that it was probably because Dani had to ask himself all those questions and get the answer on his own. So basically Dani loves to learn. returning to the coaching, it's not just about KTM riders, or now that he is retired. Apparently in 2018, Maverick complained that the Yamaha was not working and Dani, who has never rider a Yamaha (or a non-Honda at that point) suggested some modifications to a rival. Apparently it was what he needed because Maverick went to win the next race.

He is not kind to himself. He heard his own stats and gets down because he is no a MotoGP World Championship. I think that Dani sees himself still as a kid fighting against his idols/top riders without realizing that he is now a legend and his the idol of other riders. (Marc and Álex M (especially Álex) are open about Dani being his idols. Also Ana has him as an idol!). Don't get me wrong, he is proud of what he has done and accomplished, but when you see his numbers compared to Vale, Marc, Jorge or Casey, he feels like he did nothing.

He never will see a bad thing about anyone. I'm serious even with all the Puig-Honda stuff that has gone on, Dani still talks about Puig and how he is the reason he is there. That without Puig he would had never done it-. The worst think I heard him said about Honda is 'a serious of bad decision made them be there'. And lets be a honest this is not a bad thing. He could drag them through the mud, but he is a gentlemen.

He is also a fighter, and not just on track. He has always had to fight with the bike and his body and also with Honda because he was not always listened.

And the worst thing, which also could be seen as good one, it's actually something he picked from Puig. Apparently people around Dani said that he would come to you, ask the questions and once he got the answer, h will leave. Some times even leave you with the words on the mouth. Apparently it's because they are hands on the job and are not in the mood to do small talk when it's not time for it. I think people mentioned it got better, but that definitely didn't help with his unapproachable aura he had back then.

He also seems to have a terrible memory when is not properly on track stuff or not something that blow out of proportion. Recently (December 2022) an interview wit Dani and Jorge (and other ex-riders) was realized and Jorge was the one who knew about all the intricacies and little details about them, while Dani was 'I don't remember you/me was there' which was funny because it's your husband enemies to lover friends slow burn.

And that is all I can think about at the moment. I hope this helps you/you were after

[42bakery]

Luca Marini meeting the Honda bosses and his team for the first time

[batsplat]

Pedrosa and his manager Alberto Puig have firm grip on the Repsol Honda garage. Pedrosa has been drafted in by Honda to win back the MotoGP title, and Puig has taken advantage to ensure that he controls events inside the team. Pedrosa and Puig are rumored to be demanding a wall separating the two sides of the Repsol Honda pits, and will have a very strong say in who will replace Nicky Hayden in 2009. Unfortunately, Pedrosa doesn't really want anyone as a team mate, so any such quest will be very difficult. The news from Misano that Pedrosa will be running on Bridgestones from the Indianapolis race onwards will potentially make things even more complicated. The question is whether both Repsol Hondas will be on Bridgestones, or just Dani Pedrosa, with the garage split in the same way as the Fiat Yamaha garage. (x)

After Nicky Hayden's less than surprising switch to Ducati, the 2nd worst kept secret in MotoGP was announced at Motegi today. HRC formally announced that Andrea Dovizioso will be heading to Repsol Honda as Hayden's replacement. The Italian rookie has made a big impression since arriving in MotoGP, and his long-standing relationship with Honda, including struggling to compete with the much faster Aprilia's in the 250 class, made him a racing certainty for the Repsol Honda seat. The devil of such a deal is, as always, in the details. Dovizioso signed a one-year deal with Repsol, in itself a rarity, as the factory team has preferred to work on a two-year cycle with riders. But Dovizioso's biggest challenge will be sharing the pits with Dani Pedrosa. With the full weight of the team's Spanish sponsor behind him, as well as a competent political operator at his side, Pedrosa has had most of the attention from HRC over the past two years, even going so far as to engineer a switch to Bridgestone tires in mid-season, breaking up a long-standing relationship which HRC has had with Michelin. But according to GPOne.com, Dovizioso has secured some powerful guarantees from Honda. Firstly, according to Masumi Hamane, President of HRC, both Dovizioso and Pedrosa will be afforded equal treatment, with a decision made during the season as to who will get preferential access to new material based on who is ahead in the championship at that time. Furthermore, regardless of whether a single tire rule will be introduced or not, Hamane said that "regardless of what happens (with respect to a single tire rule - Ed.), we hope to be able to give both riders the same tires. Even more intriguingly, Hamane ruled out that the two sides of the garage would be divided by a wall, as is the case in the Fiat Yamaha pit box, and as was introduced into the Repsol Honda garage after Pedrosa switched to Bridgestones. The one inkling that all is not well at Repsol Honda is the length of Dovizioso's contract. Signed for just one year, his contract will run out at the same time as Dani Pedrosa's, opening the way for a complete shake-up of the team. There are already strong rumors that Dani Pedrosa has been given notice that he will be fired if he does not win the 2009 world championship, and unless Honda can sign another Spanish rider with championship potential, it is not unthinkable that the Iberian oil giant may reconsider its sponsorship of the factory team. Repsol is increasingly desperate for a Spanish world champion, and if Pedrosa fails them, they may feel they are not getting the necessary return on their investment. (x)

The Italian was confirmed at the team last weekend, and he will replace Nicky Hayden in 2009. Hayden will leave for Ducati after two tense seasons as Pedrosa' teammate. The American suggested at times that Pedrosa got more support than him during his tenure at Honda. Dovizioso says he is concerned about the power Pedrosa has in the team, but claims he will not have a problem if his relationship with the Spaniard is not good. "We've made a good contract," Dovizioso told Motosprint. "At a certain point in the season, the HRC rider best-placed in the championship or fighting for the title will be the first one at receiving the best material and developments. This is an important clause. "There's no point denying that the power held by Pedrosa and (manager, Alberto) Puig worries me. I'd prefer to have a good relationship with Pedrosa, but if he doesn't want that then it certainly won't be a big problem for me." Dovizioso, who made his MotoGP debut this season, has signed a one-year deal with HRC, and the Italian says it was what both parties wanted. "We wanted it that way, and they accepted that immediately. We need to evaluate each other: both of us want to put ourselves to the test." (x)

The relationship between the pair has been strained since Pedrosa collided with Hayden at Estoril in 2006 in an incident that looked set to destroy the American's title hopes until Valentino Rossi's crash in the Valencia finale allowed Hayden to claim the crown after all. When a wall was erected down the centre of the Honda garage at Indianapolis following Pedrosa's controversial mid-season switch to Bridgestone tyres, Hayden hinted that it would make little difference because there had been no exchange between the two riders' crews anyway. But in an outspoken interview with the official MotoGP website, Puig has accused Hayden of relying on Pedrosa's set-ups and of harbouring jealousy towards the Spaniard. "All I can say is that Hayden may be bothered because now he can't access information and telemetry data from Dani's bike," Puig told motogp.com. "With this information he was able to improve his riding, as he had all of Dani's references and now he can't use that any longer. He was simply copying as he never knew how to set-up a bike. "A professional rider can't be complaining because he can't get access to the other rider's data, because finding what works best is his job, not the other rider's. "Everybody knows that a racing team doesn't work like a football team. It involves two riders, but each is working for himself and the factory will support the rider who has the best chance. Because when it comes to winning, only one rider wins. It has always been like this and it always will be like this - anybody who says the opposite is just lying to look good." Puig claimed that Hayden had never been an equal rival to Pedrosa. "Honestly, and without trying to offend anyone, there was never a rivalry in the garage," he said. "Nicky won the title when Dani was in his first MotoGP season, and since then there was no rivalry because he (Hayden) didn't get the results. On his own, Dani gained experience in this class and Nicky was always behind him, so Nicky has never been a serious rival." Hayden will leave the Honda team for Ducati at the end of the season, with Andrea Dovizioso taking the place. The Italian has already intimated that he expects a difficult relationship with Pedrosa and Puig, who said Pedrosa will regard Dovizioso as just another rival. "He has shown loyalty to the factory, and now he gets a perfect move for him," said Puig of Dovizioso. "As for how it will affect us? It really won't change much and won't affect our way of working. He will be another rival on the track." (x)

Andrea Dovizioso. Meet Dani Pedrosa. Ok, now you two kids play nice.  Speaking at the EICMA motorcycle exhibition in Milan last week, Dovizioso played down any initial tension between himself and Pedrosa: “Dani is a former 125cc and 250cc World Champion and a great rider, but first of all he is a good guy, probably even shyer than I am. Maybe this is the reason why we don´t have a great feeling yet, but we will have a lot of time to know each other,´ said the rider about to enter his sophomore year in the premier class. `I think right now he is not reaching his level on the road, maybe also because of his manager.” Why the manager? Well that might be because Dovi has been described by Alberto Puig (Pedrosa’s manager)as “just another rival”, but Dovizioso is keen to emphasise that there is no bad feeling in the Honda camp. Right… Still, Dovizioso’s goals for the 2009 season includes beating the pants off his teammate, especially with only a year to prove himself as a factory rider. “To finish ahead of Dani would be important, and I am confident about my chances, but I will be mainly focused on stepping on the podium any time I can, being consistent with my new Honda HRC throughout the season.” (x)

MILAN, March 8, 2009 - His face is the same, serene, often smiling. His voice is calm, his words are sometimes sharp. Andrea Dovizioso has not changed even though at 22 he has realized his dream of becoming an official Honda Hrc rider in MotoGP. And he takes stock after the Qatar tests, one month before the start of the world championship. Q: Andrea, the Honda from Losail didn't seem to be in great shape. AD: "We have some small problems, it's true. Especially stability at the rear when braking, but also engine delivery. And we need to work on the clutch. We're slow when entering corners and in Qatar, with the cold and humidity, the bike was sliding a lot when braking." Q: How has it changed the way you work as a factory rider? AD: "You waste energy. With the satellite bike you can change little and you concentrate on riding. Now in every curve you have to think about how to improve things. It's not easy, but if you want to try to win you have to develop". Q: Injuries aside, Pedrosa is an uncomfortable teammate: what is he like inside the box? AD: "I don't know exactly what he does." Q: Is there any exchange of information? AD: "No, nothing. But if we need it, we have access to all the data." Q: What technical situation did he find? AD: "It's too early to say, but I was expecting a more competitive package: I don't know how much depends on Pedrosa and how much on Honda. From what I understand, I think he doesn't want many changes". [...] Q: Can you take away some of Pedrosa's manager Alberto Puig's power within the team? AD: "We all know how Puig tries to have as much power as possible. I think that with the arrival in June of the new HRC president, Suzuki, things will go better." (x)

Having signed an extension to his current deal with Honda, Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa continues to be regarded as the Spanish team's favorite rider for the 2010 MotoGP title. However, the Japanese manufacturer made it very clear that there would be no favoritism within the Repsol Honda team next year, as both Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso will be given equal chances to fight for the title. The situation in the past hasn't been quite the same however, as Pedrosa was constantly advantaged in terms of bike development ahead of former teammate Nicky Hayden between 2006 and 2008. As his height was considerable shorter than Hayden's, it caused the North American rider to score inconsistent results throughout the 2007 and 2008 seasons. The Honda officials insisted that won't be the case next year, as both riders have the power to sustain a title fight next season. “Dovizioso and Pedrosa will have the same position inside the team. We work together with the two riders, both of them, because that's in everyone's interest. It's not true that we have worked just for Pedrosa up to now. We have two riders and we use the work and the information from both of them. Andrea, too, is very useful for development work, and he will be more and more so,” said HRC vice-president Shuhei Nakamoto in an interview with Motosprint. To emphasize this change in strategy, Nakamoto also confirmed that Dani Pedrosa's long-time manager Alberto Puig will no longer be in charge of the technical developments of the Honda bikes, but be handed a more organizational role within the Spanish team. Both Pedrosa and Dovizioso have signed one-year extensions to their current contracts with HRC, but the Italian's contract has a clause that can keep him at Honda until the end of 2011. HRC's change in strategy seems to be related to Pedrosa's public attack at his team in recent weeks. Although he signed the extension after the San Marino GP two weekends ago, he admitted he would have liked to race for Yamaha next year. (x)

[waru-chan8]

The lore behind this photo 😍

In the pre-podium area, Dani was in the 9th cloud, and Jorge chatted with him and Puig apart from congratulating him. It's a very dare memory for Jorge, but Dani don't remember. So yes a super memory because it was his first conversation with his bae

SUPER MEMORIES!!!!!!

[fastianini]

the universal honda experience of 2023

[12endigital]

Pedro Sánchez versus Alicante

La opinión del millón para el/la mejor opinante respondiendo a la pregunta ¿quién ha ganado las elecciones? deja la respuesta tan en el aire como quedó su predecesora sobre ¿quién las iba a ganar? Ni un solo acertante para línea, y seguimos para bingo tan impredecible como la repetición de elecciones o la ingobernabilidad de cualquiera de los dos bloques, sea el PP y su escisión Vox, o, peor aún,…

[caseystonedd]

alberto puig really looked into the eyes of this smol deer of 13 years old and thought: it's him. it will be him.

[waru-chan8]

No, he said that Ricard Jové the first one who talked about it is a liar. And that not even Héctor Faubel, Fermín's manager knows where this comes from, but I think Faubel confirmed it to the Spanish media. There’s no smoke without fire, everyone was talking about it, so there's something real in there. He also had to add for next year. So I'm leaving this in here.

Also Puig is a pathological liar. Miguel admitted he had been in talks with Honda, and we all know that Honda has knocked every door, so don't go saying it's Mack or another rider that approaches them

Puig is saying that Fermín lied about talks with honda!!! I know the man's a cunt but that's a new low. He lied about having talks with Miguel and is now trying to embarrass a teenage boy like that?!? He's a disgusting man I can't wait until he's out of this paddock.

[opelman]

Ford GT 40 / Jordi Puig / Alberto Pecanins / Casmat Engineer by Artes Max Via Flickr: ESPÍRITU DE MONTJUÏCH 2022 / Circuit de Barcelona

[repsolhonda]

CRYING NSNSNSNSNSSN

[42bakery]

Honda (or at least as far as Puig knows) is not talking with anyone at the moment. They are hoping Joan stays with them

[batsplat]

new casey podcast have you seen it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=ye8wNfrvaPDjtpDV&v=IuwZN6aP8sg&feature=youtu.be

(link to the podcast) yeah I did, cheers!

there's not that much 'new information' per se within this podcast, though there's a bunch of nice tidbits about teenage casey. what stood out to me is how the framing of his journey to becoming a racer is... well, it's kinda new? it's not exactly surprising, because you could get a lot of this stuff from reading between the lines in his autobiography. the question of 'is this your dream or your parents' dream' is a very common one with athletes, and it's often a thin line... but, y'know, this podcast interview in particular is quite a noticeable shift in how casey himself talks about this issue. it's a shift in how he portrays his 'dream' of becoming a professional rider back when he was formulating his autobiography, versus how he's answering questions in this episode. his autobiography isn't free from criticism of his parents - but casey is always stressing his own desire to race. so you do get stuff like this (from the autobiography):

At this point things were getting serious. Dad used to say, 'If you want to become World Champion you can't be that much better than local competition,' holding his finger and thumb an inch apart. 'You have to be this much better,' he'd say, holding his arms wide open. Dad confirms this feeling still today: 'I know it's a harsh way to look at things but that's the difference between a champion and the rest. Just look at the careers of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo. Dani had Alberto Puig and Jorge had his old man, both of them hard as nails. If you want to make it to the top I think it takes somebody with an unforgiving view on life to help get you there. So I said those things to Casey, particularly when we went to the UK, because to keep moving up a level he couldn't just be happy with winning a race. If he wasn't winning by a margin that represented his maximum performance then he wasn't showing people how much better he was than the rest.' There's no denying that Dani, Jorge and I became successful with that kind of upbringing and sometimes you probably do need it. As far as I'm concerned Alberto was nowhere near as tough on Dani as my dad was on me or Jorge's dad was on him. That kind of intensity and expectation puts a lot of extra pressure on a father-son relationship that isn't always healthy. We definitely had our moments and there were a few major blow-ups to come. But at the time, rightly or wrongly, it was proving to be a good system for us and I was eager to continue impressing my dad and others with my performances on the track.

(quick reminder, jorge's review of his father's style of parenting was describing him as "a kind of hitler")

but in general the emphasis is very much on how much casey enjoyed racing, on how single-minded casey was when it came to racing. he might have been isolated by his racing (again this is from the autobiography, in the context of discussing being bullied by kids in school until he got 'protection' from his dirt track friends):

School life was a whole lot better after that but I still hated it. All my real friends were from dirt-track; they were the only people I had anything in common with.

and he's talked about how other parents misinterpreted his shyness as him not actually wanting to race, which meant they were judging casey's parents as a result (autobiography):

Mum tells me that the other parents thought she and Dad were awful because I cried as I lined up on the start line. She remembers: 'I was putting his gloves on his hands and pushing his helmet over his head. The thing was, I knew Casey wasn't crying because he didn't want to ride or because he was scared. He just didn't like the attention of being stared at by all these people!'

but like. overall racing for him was still something he portrayed as a very positive aspect of his childhood. something he always clung onto, something that was his choice to pursue

so... let's play compare and contrast with some specific passages of the autobiography and this podcast, you decide for yourself. take this from his autobiography:

After I started winning more times than not, and it was obvious my passion for bikes wasn't wavering, Mum and Dad decided that seeking out sponsors could be a great idea to help offset some of the costs of travelling to meets and keeping the bikes in good order.

and here, in a longer excerpt about what a sickly child casey was, what his mother said (autobiography):

'They tested him for cystic fibrosis and he was on all kinds of medication; you name it, he was on it. But Casey still raced, we couldn't stop him.' I know I was sick but Mum was right, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

versus this from the podcast, when he's responding to a completely open question about how he got into riding:

To be honest, I don't know if I was allowed to have any other attraction to be honest. I think it was, you know, you're going to be a bike rider from when I was a very very young age - and I'm not the only one to think that. I think my parents have stated that enough times to certain people and you know I was sort of pushed in that direction. My elder sister who's six and a half years older than me, she actually raced a little bit of dirt bikes and dirt track before I was born and when I was very young, so it was sort of a natural progression to go and do a little bit more of that and I think because at the time road racing was a lot more similar to dirt track. That was our sort of way in.

this was one of the very first questions in the interview, it basically just consisted of asking casey how he got into biking in the first place - whether it had come through his family or whatever. casey chose to take the response in that direction... it's not an answer that is just about his own internal passion, how he loved riding the second he touched a bike, how he loved it throughout his childhood etc etc (which is how it's framed in the autobiography) - but instead he says he wasn't allowed to do anything else. he says that he was pushed in that direction, that his parents have openly said as much to others. that he feels vindicated in the belief he was never given another choice

let's play another round. here from the autobiography:

Mum and Dad used to stand at the side for hours on end watching me practise at different tracks. They'd sometimes clock laps with a stopwatch as I went round and round. Other parents couldn't see the point in taking it so seriously but they didn't realise it was what I wanted. I was having fun. Working out how to go faster was how I got my kicks and I couldn't stop until I had taken a tenth or two of a second off my best time on any day. If another kid came out onto the track with me I would be all over them, practising passing them in different ways and in different corners, but most of the time they avoided riding with me and I would be out there on my own, racing the clock.

and this (autobiography):

I enjoyed racing so much that even when I was at home riding on my own I would set up different track configurations to challenge myself. I'd find myself a rock here, a tree there, a gatepost over there and maybe move a branch and that would be my track.

versus here, in the podcast:

Q: And did you realise at the time that you were - not groomed, is not the word but well you were being groomed to be a professional motorcycle racer, or obviously that was your only one reference point, that was the norm. Did that just feel the norm or did you think actually this feels a bit intense or how did you feel about it? A: I think it's hard, it's not until I sort of reached my mid teens where I started to have a bit of a reality check on what I was actually doing. Before then, you know I was competitive. I'm not as competitive as people think, I'm a lot more competitive internally rather than externally versus other people. I always challenge myself to things, so all those younger years was just getting the job done that I was expected to do. I enjoyed winning, I loved it, but you know I enjoyed perfect laps, perfect races, as close as I could get to that and you know from a young age I always sort of challenged myself constantly to be better. So I didn't just win races, I tried to win them - you know, if I won races by five seconds in a [...] race I'd try and win, you know I'd try and get to double that by the end of the day if I could. So you know that always kept me sharp and it stopped me from being sort of, you know, complacent in the position I was at. And it wasn't until sort of you know 16, 17, 18 that reality kicked in. I'd had a couple years road racing in the UK and Spain, been rather successful and then you get to world championships and you know maybe an engineer that was sort of - didn't have your best interests at hear. And, you know, I nearly finished my career right there after my first year of world championships just because of the reality of how hard it was in comparison to everything else I'd experienced up to that point. And, you know, it was a real reality check for me and I think it was then that I started to - you know consider everything around me and consider how and why I got to the position that I was in and that's when the mind started to change a little bit and realise that you know I really was being groomed my whole life just to sort of be here and be put on a track and try and win. And, you know, that was my seemingly most of my existence.

in all the excerpts, he stresses how much he enjoys his perfect laps, how much he enjoys riding, how there is genuine passion there, how dedicated he is to this pursuit... but then in the podcast, he's adding something else - how he'd been groomed his whole life into that role of 'professional bike racer'. that it was only in his late teens (when he was in 125cc/250cc) where he had this moment of 'man I never really had a choice in all this'

and another round. here's him talking in the autobiography about how all the money he got through racing went back into racing - but it was fine because it was the only thing he cared about anyway:

I don't remember seeing any of the money I earned because it all went back into my racing, although I guess at the time that's all I really cared about anyway. I didn't know anything else. Mum and Dad always said to me: 'If you put in the effort, we'll put in the effort.'

and here in the autobiography on how he just wanted to ride all day:

I couldn't ride my bike all day, though, as much as I would have liked to.

and him talking in the autobiography about his parents encouraging him and his sister to 'chase their dreams':

Mum and Dad encouraged both Kelly and me to follow our passions and work hard to chase our dreams. That might sound strange when you are talking about a seven-year-old but I don't think you are never too young to know that if you want something you have to earn it.

versus this in the podcast:

Q: And I've never asked you this before, but did you want to? A: Um... I think I'd been convinced of a dream I suppose. You know, yes I loved riding bikes and you know I really did enjoy racing... but there was lots of other things that I - I really enjoyed as well but just never had the opportunity or never was allowed to do anything else, so... You know, motorbikes for our budget everything fortunately dirt track was probably the cheapest way that you could go motorbike racing. You could survive on very very little in dirt track and show your potential in other ways. You know, yes, having good bikes and good tyres and all that sort of thing made a difference but it wasn't the be all end all, you could always make a difference in other ways, so... I think it was, you know - the best thing we could have done, racing through that. Like I said I enjoyed it, it wasn't until late teens, early 20s where I sort of was like, I don't know if I would have been a bike racer had I actually had a choice.

was riding really all he cared about? or were there other things he was interested in, things he just never had the opportunity to pursue? things he wasn't allowed to pursue? from the autobiography, you get the sense that his parents always deliberately portrayed it as casey's dream, something he was expected to work hard for in order to be allowed to fulfil. in the podcast, casey says it was a dream he was 'convinced' of. without wanting to speak too much on the specifics of this parenting relationship we only have limited knowledge of, this kinda does all sound like athlete parent 101: getting it into their kids' heads that this is the dream of the child, not the parent, before holding it over them when they fail to perform when their parents have invested so so much in their child's success. casey's family was financially completely dependent on his racing results when they moved to the uk - he was fourteen at the time. he was painfully conscious of his parents' 'sacrifice' to make 'his dream' possible. can you imagine what kind of pressure that must be for a teenager?

to be clear, this isn't supposed to be a gotcha, I'm not trying to uncover contradictions between what casey said back then and what he's saying now. obviously, this is all very... thorny, complicated stuff, and casey has had to figure out for himself how he feels about it, how he feels about how his parents approached his upbringing. but it is worth pointing out that this isn't necessarily just a question of his feelings changing over time - if the internal timeline he provides in the podcast is correct, he was really having that realisation in his late teens, early 20s, so on the verge of joining the premier class. that is when he says he had the thought "I don't know if I would have been a bike racer had I actually had a choice"... which is a pretty major admission, you have to say, especially given how rough those premier class years often ended up being on him. but then that realisation would have already come years and years before he wrote his autobiography, it would've been something he carried with him for most of his career. given that, you do look at his autobiography and think that he did make the decision to frame things pretty differently back then, that he decided to exclude certain things from his narrative. if this really is already something that's been festering within him for years, if he does feel like he wants to be a bit more open about all of that now than back then... well, hopefully it shows he's been able to work through all of it a bit more in the intervening years

(this is somehow an even thornier topic than his relationship with parents, but relatedly there is a bit of a discrepancy between how bullish he is in his autobiography about how mentally unaffected he was by his results, versus how he's since opened up since then about his anxiety. again, I want to stress, this is not a gotcha, he's under no obligation to share this stuff with the world - especially given the amount of discourse during his career about his supposed 'mental weakness'. it is still important in understanding him, though, how he consciously decided to tell his own story in the autobiography and how he's somewhat changed his approach in the subsequent years)

this is the rest of his answer to that podcast question I relayed above:

But at the same time you know I felt that no matter what I would have done, I sort of have a - my mentality of self-punishment, you know, of never being good enough that always drove me to try and be better and any single thing that I did, I didn't like it when I wasn't not perfect. I don't believe in the word perfect but I really didn't enjoy when I wasn't, you know, in my own terms considered a good enough level at anything I did so I would always sort of try to get up as high as I could regardless of what for.

at which point hodgson says exactly what I was thinking and goes 'god what a line' about the "mentality of self-punishment" thing. it is one hell of a line!

what's really interesting about this podcast is how these two big themes of 'this wasn't my choice' and 'self-punishment' end up kinda being linked together when casey talks about how the motogp world reacted to him... so again I'm gonna quickly toss in a bit from the autobiography (where he's talking about casual motorcycling events he went to as a kid), because it does read similarly in how for him the joy and competitive aspects of riding are closely linked:

It was a competition but it wasn't highly competitive; it was just for fun, really. Of course, I didn't see it that way, though, and I had dirt and stones flying everywhere. I don't think anyone expected the park to be shredded like it was. When I was on my bike, if I wasn't competing to my maximum level then I wasn't having as much fun.

and back to the podcast:

And also because people truly didn't understand me, that I'm not there just to enjoy the racing. As we're explaining, before that, you know it was sort of a road paved for me... And so the results were all important, not the enjoyment of it. And then you cop the flak for everything you do. I'm also very self-punishing, so it was kind of a - just a lose lose lose and it was all very very heavy on myself, so... It, you know, it took me till my later years to realise I could take the pressure off myself a little bit and go look you've done all the work you've done everything you can, you got to be proud of what you've done, so... Not necessarily go out there and enjoy it, because I don't believe you should just be going out in a sport where you're paid as much as we are expect to get results and just - you know - oh I'm just going to go and have fun it's like... yeah, nah, if you're just going to go and have fun then you're not putting in the work. And that's when we see inconsistencies etc. So I was very very harsh on myself and so even when I won races, if I made mistakes or I wasn't happy with the way I rode, well then yeah I'm happy I won but there's work to do. There was more to get out of myself and so that's where I copped a lot of bad... um, let's say bad press because of those kind of things and then they sort of attack you even more because they didn't like the fact that you didn't celebrate these wins like they wanted you to they expect you to I suppose treat every victory like almost a championship and you know it's not that I expected these wins but I expected more of myself and therefore maybe I didn't celebrate them as much as you know other people do.

kind of brings together a lot of different things, doesn't it? this whole profession was a path that was chosen for him... which he links here to how the results were 'all important' for him, how it just couldn't ever be about enjoyment. he always punished himself for his mistakes, he was under constant pressure, which also affected how he communicated with the outside world... he was so committed to self-flagellation that he made it tough for himself to actually celebrate his victories, which in turn wasn't appreciated by the fans or the press. so on the one hand, casey's obviously still not particularly thrilled about how much of a hard time he was given over his particular approach to being a rider. but on the other hand, he's also describing how all of this can be traced back to how becoming a rider was never actually his 'choice'. he's detailed his perfectionism before, including in his autobiography, including in discussing his anxiety disorder more recently - but this is explicitly establishing that link between the pressure he'd felt during his childhood to how he'd been pushed into this direction to how he then had to perform. he couldn't afford to be anything less than perfect, so he wasn't, and at times he made his own life even tougher as a result of his own exacting standards. this just wasn't stuff he's said in such straightforward, explicit terms before... and now he is

my general thing with casey is that his reputation as a straight shooter or whatever means people aren't really paying enough attention to how he's telling his own story. like, I kinda feel the perception is 'oh he used to be more closed off because the media ragged on him but since retirement he's been able to tell it like it really is' or whatever. and I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong, but it's not quite as simple as that. because he's not a natural at dealing with the media, he's put a fair bit of thought into how to communicate better with them (which he does also say in the podcast), and he's explicitly acknowledged this is something he looked to valentino for in order to learn how to better handle. because casey has felt misunderstood for quite a long time, he's quite invested in selling his story in certain ways - and it's interesting how what he's chosen to reveal or emphasise or conceal or downplay has changed over time. which means there will be plenty of slight discrepancies that pop up over time that will be as revealing as anything he explicitly says... and it tells you something, what his own idea of what 'his story' is at any given time. this podcast isn't just interesting as a sort of, y'know, one to one, 'this is casey telling the truth' or whatever - it's reflecting where his mind is at currently, what he wants to share and in what way, and how that compares to his past outlook. the framing of his childhood was really something that popped out about this particular interview... it's not like it's exactly surprising that this is how he feels, but more that he decided to say all of this so openly. some pretty heavy stuff in there! hope the years really have helped him... man, I don't know. figure it all out, for himself. something like that

[waru-chan8]

Puig is admitting contact with Marino, but says it's up to the rider to break the contract and come to them.

So his options are only Diggia? And that Maverick is the one that come to them?