Jorge Martinez “Aspar” – former team boss of Alvaro – was in Talavera de la Reina yesterday evening for a promotional event with three of his current riders, Hector Barbera, Julian Simon and Nico Terol.
Being back in Alvaro’s home town where he’s last been in 2006 to celebrate Bati’s 125cc world championship title, it was inevitable that the gathered press would also use the occasion to ask him about his on opinion of Alvaro’s first year in MotoGP.

“I think he’s doing well”, said Martinez. “This is a very competitive and difficult class where you have 13 world champions, these are no slouches. Alvaro’s problems have been a few crashes and his injuries and I think this has destroyed his season so far. But I believe that he is making progress, the last races have been good. He’s got the support of the Suzuki factory team behind him and I’m sure he’s gonna do well. They started with some bike problems and then the crashes, injuries and such which without a doubt has made things very difficult until now.”

Asked if he could imagine working with Alvaro again in the future after their more than successful relation in the last few years, Aspar made clear that he’d have nothing against that.
“It could happen, I’m not ruling that out, because Alvaro is a great rider and I have a good relationship with him and his family, so that would be a good sign for both.”
Incidentally, Aspar also met Alvaro’s manager Armando Guerrero over the course of the day.

Martinez and the Aspar riders signed autographs and posed for photos during the “Talavera sobre ruedas” event with the highlight being a race of Hector Barbera against Talavera’s most successful bicycle racer David Arroyo on a small circuit.

Source: La Tribuna de Talavera

Which of Alvaro’s helmets do you like best?
Read through our full history of them here in our special feature article, look through the choices here and vote in the poll at the bottom of the page…

Have you ever wondered about Alvaro’s helmets and their designs? We give you an overview of all the personally designed helmets Alvaro’s been using in his career so far.
And once you’ve found out all about them, you can VOTE for your favourite in our exclusive poll here…

Alvaro started his world championship career as a wildcard in 2002 with the helmet sponsor NZI. It’s a relatively small Spanish company that isn’t too well-known outside the Iberian Peninsula, but they sponsored a lot of Spanish racing stars in the past and Alvaro stayed with them for six seasons.

His first personal NZI helmet in 2002 was designed to match his Atletico Madrid livery back then and it made a great looking complete package. Alvaro wore that helmet for all races in the Spanish Championship that year and his wildcard entries in Catalunya and Jerez. His mascot at the time was already a devil, albeit not looking much like the mascot he has nowadays. He wore a differently designed helmet for his wildcard at the Valencian GP which was most likely a regular design of NZI’s product line that year.

2003 was Bati’s first full season in the 125cc world championship and his NZI Vitesse helmet design was a pretty simple one at that time. But the silver base design with black, red and blue elements, topped off with stickers of his name, number and mascot already bore some resemblance to his design in the following years. It’s interesting to note that for the first two races of the 2003 season Alvaro’s mascot was not a devil but instead the head of a bull with fire coming out of its nostrils. The inaugural Spanish championship round in Catalunya was the first time we saw the fun devil mascot that Alvaro still has today.

In 2004 Bati wore the same helmet as in 2003 for the first race in South Africa and in various practice sessions throughout the year, but at the Jerez GP he unveiled the trademark helmet design which should stay with him until the end of his championship winning season in 2006. Although the design stayed the same (bar a few very minor variations of colours and shapes) the helmet was further developed by NZI and Alvaro promoted the NZI Vitesse and NZI Razer II with this design during the years.

There were only two different designs during that time. The first was a special one-off helmet for the Valencian GP 2004 which – along with Alvaro’s leathers – had a slightly different colour scheme to represent the Spanish flag. And Alvaro’s championship helmet which he wore during the Japanese GP in 2006 and during the practice sessions of the following Portuguese and Valencian GP was a modified version of his normal design with a large number 1 on each side.

With his move to the 250cc class in 2007 Alvaro also changed his helmet design completely. His new NZI Spyder III helmet, designed by the Spanish company Zero Racing, now matched his blue and white livery much better. A blue and silver base colour with dominant red details and tribal features made the perfect addition to the rest of his safety gear. An interesting detail of the first helmets he wore that year are the colours of the Spanish flag incorporated on top of the helmet. However, these were not used in all GPs that year and the replicas sold by NZI do not include the Spanish flag either.

2008 saw not only a colour change for the Aspar Team, but also a change of helmet sponsor for Alvaro as he switched to Suomy. His first personalised design of the Suomy Spec 1R, created by Bargy Design, wasn’t used for long though. The very bold blue, red and white design tries to play with Alvaro’s devil mascot and features two stylised devil heads on the back and the top of the helmet. The helmets used by Alvaro in the races also have his name embedded in the design on the back. However, due to a company policy of Suomy this is not a feature of the replicas sold to the public. Suomy replicas in general do not include the personal numbers or names of the riders, these are only made specifically for their sponsored riders.

Already in Mugello, the 6th Grand Prix of the 2008 season, Alvaro began to wear his new 2009 design regularly. Considering his red & white livery since the start of 2008, the mostly red and silver 2009 Spec 1R design fit much better in the combination and he kept the helmet all throughout last year as well. Just like with the 2008 helmet the race version of the 2009 helmet also has a stylised “Bautista” on the backside which is not included in the replicas sold by Suomy. This design and all special one-off helmets during the 2008 and 2009 season were created by the Italian company Starline Designers.

Special designs 2008 & 2009
Alvaro wore different helmets on three occasions in 2009 – Catalunya, Misano and Valencia – and one time in 2008 for the Jerez GP

His unique helmet design for Catalunya showed comic characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa on the back and a grim-looking windmill on top of the helmet. Alvaro’s hometown Talavera de la Reina lies in Castilla La-Mancha where the story of the book Don Quixote takes place which is a big part of La Mancha’s culture. Bati said about the design: “It is a design that I like a lot, it’s very original. Don Quixote is from La Mancha, like me, and we say that he was a bit of a crazy hero, a knight who went out to fight on his horse. He fought against wind mills, I fight against other riders.”

At the San Marino GP 2009 Alvaro wore a helmet during the race which appears to be a regular design of Suomy’s 2010 product range and is called “Wall Street”.

The very simple design of Alvaro’s helmet at the Valencian GP 2009 was a tribute to his team manager and good friend Jorge Martinez Aspar. Since it was already clear by the time that Alvaro would not continue his career with the Aspar Team, he wanted to honour the man who helped him become 125cc world champion in 2006 and fight for the 250cc crown multiple times. The helmet is a replica of the design Aspar wore during his active racing career and features a personal dedication from Alvaro to Jorge and his entire team.

The helmet design Alvaro presented at the Jerez GP 2008 featured a red and yellow Spanish colour combination with two big “B”s for Bautista on the side of the helmet and his mascot on the back. Unfortunately this special design did not bring him any luck as he had an engine seizure during the race which cost him the win.

The future

Bati will stay with helmet sponsor Suomy for the 2010 season, his first one in the MotoGP class. His newest design which we saw for the first time at the Sepang test earlier this month looks similar to the Jerez 2008 helmet in its pattern idea with the two “B”s on the sides, but its colour scheme is much brighter, featuring the Rizla Suzuki baby blue mixed with very colourful pink and yellow elements. Alvaro’s newest helmet design is again created by Bargy Designs.

Since Alvaro will not continue with the Aspar Team next season, he did the best he could today in Valencia to give them an appropriate farewell present with another podium finish. And not only that. If you were wondering about Alvaro’s helmet design today, it is a Jorge Martinez replica and Alvaro was paying tribute to the man who he had an excellent professional and personal relationship with over the last four seasons and who played a pivotal role in Alvaro’s quest to become the 125cc world champion in 2006 and giving him the possibility to fight for the 250cc title the last two years.
Now this exceptional relation will come to an end, but as Jorge and Alvaro both affirmed, their friendship will still go on.

Gracias, Jorge. Gracias, Alvaro.

Update: Here’s another picture of the helmet’s backside with the signature.

Portugal, Australia, Malaysia or Valencia: if everything goes to plan it is merely a matter of time before Jorge Martínez “Aspar” celebrates 125cc World Championship glory once again. As if that weren’t enough, his team is also still in with a shot of the 250cc title at the end of what has been little short of a dream season.
His riders have started out as contenders for victory at every round on a globetrotting journey of success, whilst at the end of the season he can look forward to taking delivery of a brand new Ducati as he prepares his assault on the MotoGP category with a Valencian rider in the saddle. The multiple-World Champion has every reason to be in high spirits at the culmination of what promises to be the best season yet since the birth of the Aspar Team.

The next Moto2 tests are just around the corner yet it seems as though everything is still very much at an embryonic stage.
It’s a new project and as such it involves a lot of changes. I’m curious to see how many bikes from different projects will be on track: Aprilia, Moriwaki, Queroseno, Sutter, Bimota, etc. I think there is still plenty of time, basically because the new rules allow us to test in December.

What does your experience tell you to expect from Moto2?
I think it is going to be very equal and there won’t be much difference between the top bikes running at the front. Obviously there could be the odd project that doesn’t meet expectations but not many. I’m sure the more established teams will use their experience to make the difference, in particular the riders. But with so much parity in terms of the machinery and also the chassis, the most important factor in deciding the lap time will be the rider.

‘Third time lucky!’ Finally it looks like your MotoGP dream will become a reality…
It looks like it! We’re finally going to be in MotoGP and I’m already looking forward to seeing the bike on track after the final Grand Prix of the season at Valencia.

What will having a presence in MotoGP do for the Aspar Team?
Lots of things. I think that merely competing in MotoGP gives you an air of credibility and strength. It is a way of offering your sponsors direct contact with international brands and with the world of motorcycling. For us and for our riders it is a stairway to the very top.

Will running the largest private structure in the paddock cause you to lose sleep?
It is obviously not easy to manage such a big team and there is a lot of work to be done. On more than one occasion I’ve thought about what an uphill battle it will be to put together a team of engineers, to find such a big budget. there are a lot of things to do. It won’t be easy to have such a big structure in all three categories and we will have to work hard.

Harder than ever?
To be honest my life is very fulfilling in terms of work. As my father used to say: “work and you will want for nothing.” The whole team, including myself, never stops for a minute and I feel happy to see that the sacrifice and consistency of this great team makes our structure bigger and more competitive year upon year.

Is having such loyal staff the key to achieving everything that you refer to?
There is no doubt that if I didn’t have such comprehensive technical and human support it would be impossible to progress. Anybody can set themselves big targets or put together projects that are successful for a short amount of time, but to be successful over a long period requires a great team of people working together – without that it would be absolutely impossible to be working on the amount of things that we are doing now.

Is the icing on the cake the fact that you will have a Valencian rider in MotoGP?
As a Valencian, having a rider from the same soil in my team is fundamental. If on top of that he happens to be a great rider, as is the case with Héctor, so much the better. I hope and wish for our project with him in MotoGP to be a long term one.

Was Simón’s good form to be expected after what we saw in preseason?
The season doesn’t always pan out the same way as preseason. Sometimes you start out the strongest and then other riders and teams catch up, or make more progress than you. Julián has been incredibly solid from day one and I think the way he reprogrammed himself was very impressive. He started out at a higher level than everybody else and I’m sure he went into the season thinking that he could win every race, although he has gradually learnt to make sacrifices and take second place or even fourth where necessary – maybe his attitude changed after his mistake at Jerez. As a team we’re really happy with him because he is developing into a very complete rider.

Do you see him as the World Champion already, as the rest of the paddock seems to do?
He has shown a resounding level of superiority in the 125 class this year and he has been a step above everybody else. If nothing strange happens, because you can’t take anything for granted in racing, I think the World Championship title is in his hands.

It looks like a more difficult task for Bautista but is it an impossible one?
I’m confident that Álvaro will slam his fist on the table, start to get angry with himself and go on the attack in a more aggressive way. I have to admit that at some races I was the first person to tell him to be prudent and to work out who his main rival was going to be, and to be conservative if necessary. Now the time has come to wake up and take another step forward. Luckily at Misano we started to see that side of Álvaro Bautista.

How do you reflect on the season for your other 125cc riders?
Gadea made an okay start, recovered and was sensational in the middle part of the season. Over the last three races he hasn’t had much luck but I think that he has improved a lot on past seasons because he has worked out how to turn his situation around, recover and do well. It is a similar story for Smith – he has been very fast at certain circuits but not at others. This is probably the first time they have been fighting to win at every circuit and that is not easy for a rider to take on board.

How about Mike?
He made a fantastic start to the season but then crashed in Japan, had problems with his arm at Jerez and that set him back for a while. It was a shame because a series of things have happened that have prevented him from exploding like we expected. Luckily he is feeling better and better on the bike, he is getting faster and he is more complete as a rider. Hopefully all our riders can finish the season near the top.

Can you give us an insight into the riding style of each of your riders?
Julián is very aggressive and he is very good on the brakes. You could say that he likes to feel the front end of the bike and his riding position is probably more suited to a bigger category than 125. Smith lets the bike run a lot more, he’s smoother and he likes to have high corner speed – he doesn’t brake as much as Julián. Gadea is possibly the most aggressive out of the three and the one who moves around most on the bike, which is an aspect I think he needs to work on improving. Álvaro is very smooth, he works extremely hard and he is very consistent in practice. Maybe he’s missing a little aggression. Mike is improving a lot and he has a position on the bike that I like a lot because he loads the front, which is a good way to control the bike.