Marco Bezzecchi
Jorge Lorenzo was widely considered to be somewhat of a diva during his highly successful MotoGP career, but his former crew chief, Ramon Forcada, has asserted that the three-time world champion wasn’t all that bad to work alongside.
The Spaniard himself even acknowledged that during his time as a competitor in the premier class, his relationship with rivals like Valentino Rossi was filled with “total tension” due to the fact that they were ‘two divas, very proud, and we thought we were the best’.
It’s easy to be painted as the villain when you’re going up against one of the most beloved and recognisable figures of the sport, and that’s exactly what became of Lorenzo during his time against The Doctor at Yamaha.
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The Japanese constructor had the best bike on the grid at the time, and through having two of the fastest men on two wheels riding atop them, sparks were destined to fly from the get-go.
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Ramon Forcada insists that Jorge Lorenzo was not difficult to work with in MotoGP
During a recent appearance on Duralavita, Lorenzo’s former crew chief, Ramon Forcada, was asked for his thoughts on who he thought were the easiest and most difficult MotoGP riders to work with in the sport.
The ex-Yamaha man identified 13-time motorcycle Grand Prix winner John Kocinski as the most difficult rider to work with, while detailing how Lorenzo, a three-time MotoGP world champion, wasn’t as bad as many think.
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He said, “Jorge was not difficult to work with. Working and living together is another thing, as in Jorge the rider, and Jorge the person. They are two different people.
“Jorge had one excellent quality as a rider, which is why he won what he won. It’s that he knew what he needed to go fast. The guy would tell you, if you make the bike able to brake better in this corner, I’m going to win.
“Then you do it. You’ll do it with geometry, with suspensions, with this. But he knew exactly: If he wasn’t going fast, why was that? Not everyone knows that.”
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Alex Barros was the easiest MotoGP rider to work with, according to Ramon Forcada
Forcada also noted who he found to be the easiest premier class rider to work with, which he named as the seven-time Grand Prix winner Alex Barros.
The rider/crew chief pairing spent several years together across two stints at Honda, which turned out to be the most successful periods of the Brazilian’s career in MotoGP.
He said, “I’d say Barros, for sure, was the easiest. Maybe even too easy. Because the guy would get off his bike and tell you, ‘Look, this is what’s wrong, and this is what’s wrong.’
“Then he’d leave and never come back. And you’d say, ‘But Alex, what have we done to this?’ and he’d say, ‘No, I know you’ll fix it.’ And that was it.”
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