Fabio di Giannantonio: Shoulder “like new”, “free mind” about GP25

Fabio di Giannantonio will complete his first MotoGP laps since last October’s Thai Grand Prix when he takes to the track tomorrow for the start of the Official Sepang Test.

The Pertamina VR46 rider stepped out of the 2024 season to undergo major shoulder surgery, the aftermath of a dislocation several months earlier in Austria.

It meant he was absent from the final two rounds of the world championship and Barcelona post-race test, when an early version of the factory-spec GP25 he will race this season made its public debut.

“It has been a long winter,” di Giannantonio said during an interview with Crash.net at Sepang on Tuesday.

“I had to focus a lot to get the mobility back in my shoulder. Then try to rehabilitate every muscle around the shoulder. So it was a really long process. But now I’m really good. I feel 80-90%.

“I still miss some strength because the physical preparation only started early in January, so I had just a few weeks before this test.

“But I’m good. We did three days with the Panigale in Mandalika, I really enjoyed it, I had zero issues in terms of pain in the shoulder.

“But for sure riding the MotoGP is completely another thing. We have to see here what will happen.”

Asked when he thinks will be the hardest thing, Diggia replied: “For sure about the [lack of physical] preparation, the braking.

“But I have to see also on the straights and in the right corners, because that was the main issue last year.

“It was not possible for me to be [tucked] inside the fairing and on the right corners to put my body as low as I was going on the lefts.”

Speaking later in a media debrief at the circuit, the 26-year-old added the left shoulder now feels “like new. Like nothing happened… The Professor is one of the best in the world to make this kind of surgery and I think he did an amazing job.

“Now, thinking back, riding the GP bike in the last seven races of last year... Wow, it was tough! Now it’s a completely different this story. I hope that it will be different also [on track] from tomorrow.”

The GP25? “I want to have a free mind”

di Giannantonio will be the only rider other than Ducati Lenovo duo Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez with access to a much-coveted GP25.

“We have many, many things to try!” grinned the Italian, whose previous MotoGP machines have been year-old bikes, at the end of their development.

“It's the first time for me [testing so many parts] and it's so, so cool. So good to do it.

“For sure everybody will do their own program, but development of the bike will be done by the three of us.”

di Giannantonio was watching from the sidelines when Bagnaia and Marquez got a first taste of the GP25 in Barcelona.

But he’s keeping an open mind ahead of Wednesday’s debut.

“The team and Ducati didn't want to tell me many, many things, because they didn't want to influence me in some way, it’s a good idea,” said the Qatar 2023 race winner.

“For sure I heard something from you guys, journalists, from the interviews some few comments. But also on my side, I didn't want to [know] that much because I want to have a free mind.

“I want to ride the bike and give my most sincere feelings.

“It seems that it’s born in a really good way. The lap times were not bad but also in Barcelona, the bike was not the [full] 2025. Also because even now the [final] 2025 is not yet decided, because we will be testing things for this year.

“So I think from here we will have the first ‘25 ‘proto’ for the season.”

The Official Sepang test takes place from Wednesday to Friday.