Melandri reveals “I nearly quit”
Added on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Melandri will race with Kawasaki in 2009 after a forgettable year with Ducati.
Marco Melandri has revealed that he almost quit MotoGP last season after a disastrous season with Ducati in 2008.
The Italian, who joined Ducati last season from Gresini Honda, struggled to get to grips with the GP8 and was quickly shown the door by team bosses after just two top-ten finishes and eight scoreless rounds - more than any other rider in the paddock.
And now Melandri, who has signed with Kawasaki for the new season, has told of how he considered walking away from the sport as his struggled continued.
In a blog update on his official website entitled “Marco´s confessions”, the 26 year-old wrote, “The 2008 season is over. It has been a year in which I have had to learn from my disappointments and I don´t look back with regret because I reached a big turning point in my life in June.
“It was a really hard time and to be honest I even considered walking away from it all. Then one day something clicked and I realised that there were still so many people backing me and believing in me, and that made a big difference to me.”
But Melandri did speak of his optimism over the move to Kawasaki and the new motivation to prove the doubters wrong in 2009.
“Now I am starting to see things differently and I feel really good,” he added. “My work is the biggest passion in my life and I am going to keep giving it everything I´ve got because I enjoy riding so much.
“It is not like I haven´t tried hard this year though, in fact it was the opposite, I did all I could to try and win. But when things are going badly and nothing works like it should there is nothing more you can do.
“One thing I have learned is that you don´t always need to question yourself so much and say “where am I going wrong?”, because it doesn´t always help with looking forward. It just makes you worry more. Sometimes I think you need to let things be and just remind yourself that you are doing the right thing.”
