While Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia are playing for the MotoGP world title, David Alonso (Madrid, 18 years old), Moto3 champion for four races, seeks this weekend in Montmeló to close a record year with his fourteenth victory, the seventh in a row . His entire family is in Barcelona, including his four grandparents, the Colombians and the Spanish.
When you achieve your dream, what is left for you afterwards?
A feeling of emptiness, what now, how do I continue, what direction do I take. You stay at a point where you don’t know how to find motivation. Maybe you have to look for something deeper to motivate you: the people around you, those who have worked with you…
Now they are asking him to repeat in Moto2, what a pressure.
When you win so much you forget to suffer and now you have to start again from scratch, suffer again, because everything is a process. I can’t wait to get to Moto2 and be at the top. I have to build the house from the bottom up, create foundations to fight for a world championship again.
How do you feel when they say you are special?
Sometimes it’s a little scary when people speak so highly of you, because you have a very good image and you can’t “mess it up.” Then you understand that you are doing things right, not only driving, but also off the track. I try to be grateful and I try not to believe it, because I want to remain the same.
Can you be the same?
It is something that I am experiencing now and I understand that it can go to people’s heads. The environment and the situation make you want to take your feet off the ground. I am lucky to have certain people around who connect me with reality. It’s a team effort, first you and then the people close to you who remind you.
The MotoGP stars keep an eye on him…
Before MotoGP there is Moto2 and now I only think about that, about the next step, which is not easy. MotoGP is quite far away.
He has a very close relationship with Marc Márquez…
I feel lucky to share the paddock and some training with him. We have a certain friendship, whenever he talks to me I listen to everything he says. He is always willing to give me any advice about what he has experienced. He told me not to be in a hurry to get into MotoGP, that I am young and I should close stages.
He’s like you in that he always smiles, but on the track, as soon as he can, he smashes…
It’s a bit of the Mamba mentality, which Kobe Bryant said. The person you are on the court you cannot be off the court. On the track you have to be selfish, because it is the competition, look out for yourself and be aggressive. And then outside you are someone else, and my mother has always told me, to go everywhere with a smile.
He was in Valencia last week helping those affected by DANA. What is the strongest thing you experienced those days?
There you understand that human beings are very fragile, and that from one day to the next you can lose everything. After that you value other things more or you don’t give importance to what worried you before. It makes you see what life is like and learn from it. There were people with a lost look because they had nothing left and that is impressive.
What is Jorge Martínez Aspar for you? Father, teacher…
He is a boss and plays the role of a boss, which is very good, but in the end they have been together for seven years and there is a somewhat friendly relationship. He is the person who has given me all the tools to be able to fulfill my dreams. And then it was up to me to take advantage of them. He has had the confidence, and the patience at times, to bet on me.
His whole family has come to see this last race…
My grandparents are very proud and happy. I will always be your grandson, win or lose. The family is assimilating this new situation that we have not had before at home, although I am not famous yet. It’s funny to me how my grandparents proudly talk to the neighbors about their grandson.
Are they already starting to recognize him on the street?
More people get to know you. Within the motor world yes, but being famous is something else. I don’t know if life is better or worse, but out of curiosity I would like to get to the point of not being able to go to a shopping center. I want to be recognized not only for victories and world championships, but for how you are as a person and what you transmit.
For the MotoGP title, who would you bet money on?
I would give the money to Martín, because Pecco depends on Martín, but Jorge depends on himself. It’s better that everything depends on you. There is more pressure but it is welcome, because you are ahead.
