SuperBike Magazine July 2020

JORGE
LORENZO
It hasn’t been an easy year for Jorge Lorenzo. Starting poorly when he broke his wrist in a training accident
and turning into a complete disaster when injury after injury saw him walk away from Repsol Honda
and retire from MotoGP at the Valencian Grand Prix in November, it’s fair to say that he’s taken a beating
in the past twelve months.
However, finding a new
lease of life since the
pressures of competing
for world championships
was lifted from his shoulders and
making a triumphant return to
Yamaha as their new test rider,
he’s managed to snatch victory
from the jaws of defeat and come
out of his annus horribilis smiling.
And, sitting down with The
Race for his first interview since
the events of last November,
Lorenzo says that despite all the
highs and lows of the rollercoaster
ride he’s been through, he’s
happy with the choices that have
led him to where he is today.
Can you explain how you made
the decision to retire at the end
of 2019?
Before winning in Mugello with
Ducati, I had a difficult time. I
couldn’t get the results I wanted,
Ducati wanted to sign another
rider and I had to find a solution.
I was in a good moment of my
career, I was fast, I was still sharp
- but for some reason, I couldn’t
get the results and I couldn’t stay
in Ducati. We found the option of
going to Petronas Yamaha and it
was almost ready to sign - then
the opportunity at Honda arrived
and I couldn’t say no to them.
One of every rider’s dream is to
race for Honda at least once in
your life, and I was lucky that in
three weeks I was able to have
the chance to do what no rider
did in history and win with three
different bikes.
But things started wrong with
the injury to my scaphoid, and
the 2019 bike was difficult to ride.
Injuries came to play a big role
and it turned into a big mess. I
was never competitive, I never
got good results, and especially
the injury at Assen helped make
my decision for me. Without that,
I would probably have stayed and
tried another year, but it changed
my way of thinking a lot and retirement
became a real thought. I
tried to come back at Silverstone
and see what happened, and if
I had found the motivation and
the confidence it might have
changed things, but I didn’t have
the patience to stay without
them.
If I’m not able to win then
I’m not happy, because the only
thing that keeps me going in
this profession is the possibility
of winning. There are so many
negative aspects of it; the travel,
the events, the pressure you feel
at races, the possibility of getting
injured. They aren’t compensated
for unless you’re able to win. I
struggled and suffered a lot at
Honda, and there was no compensation
for it.
In the end, does that mean it
was an easier call to make?
It wasn’t easy to make the decision,
because I wasn’t able to
repay the trust that Honda and
Alberto Puig put in me. But it’s
also true that another year like