Despite constant training, surgeries to fix old and new injuries and the general dealings of the off-season, MotoGP riders usually have a little more time on their hands during the winter than they have during the season. Time to meet up with sponsors for example. Or shoot commercials for said sponsors.
This is at least what Álvaro did in January when he went to a Madrid suburb for a day to shoot his very first TV spot as a Gresini Honda rider for the team’s sponsor Prink, a vendor of printer cartridges.
There’s a bit of “acting” involved in this one, but we’d vote for Álvaro not to give up his day job just yet to wander off to Hollywood. What do you think?
After the announcement that Barracuda would become an official team sponsor for San Carlo Honda Gresini during the 2012 season, the Italian company has published first photos of the new 2012 bike design with their logo. This is what Álvaro’s Honda RC213V will look like.
In other and less cool news, Álvaro has been dealing with tendinitis in his right arm for about a week now, regularly visiting his physiotherapist to fix the problem before having to leave for the Sepang test which starts in exactly one week. However, Álvaro is confident the arm won’t be a problem for testing, so we keep our fingers crossed he’ll be alright for his first ride on the 1000cc Honda.
And with the pre-season testing finally upon us in just a short time, it’s been announced that most of the CRT teams won’t be testing in Sepang due to financial reasons and will instead be testing in Valencia, Jerez and Aragon while the MotoGP prototypes are out in Malaysia. For the final test in Jerez – the “GP Zero” – all bikes of the class will be on track together for the first time. Here’s a quick overview of the MotoGP test dates still to come.
Sepang I – January 31st to Februay 2nd Sepang II – February 28th to March 1st Jerez – March 23rd to March 25th
This week quite a few Álvaro interviews have been published, mainly stemming from the same interview appointment, but with different snippets being featured.
Álvaro also visited the headquarters of his personal sponsor OID last week and stayed for an interview about his season and the outlook for 2012.
Interesting video interview with Europa Press in which Álvaro talks about his switch to Gresini Honda, the loss of Simoncelli and expecations for next season. In Spanish.
Alvaro’s leather sponsor Rev’it! produced a comic strip for their 2011 catalogue at the end of last year which features both their sponsored MotoGP riders Randy De Puniet and Alvaro Bautista. After first only publishing it on their website, Rev’it! now also published the video comic strip and the Making Of on their YouTube channel for you to enjoy.
A short video, but very fun to watch: Alvaro and Randy De Puniet appear as surprised guests and walk down the catwalk for their leathers sponsor Rev’it! at their International Distributors Meeting in Amsterdam last month.
Explanation of the workings of a hyperbaric chamber and how it helped Alvaro to recover so quickly and get back to racing in record time after breaking his leg. In Spanish.
