Interview | Andrea Iannone

A four-year ban for a drug offence should have ended Andrea Iannone’s career. But this year he has struck back in WorldSBK and earned a wildcard in MotoGP along the way.

It’s been a while since I’ve interviewed Andrea Iannone. In fact, it’s been a while since anyone has. The Italian MotoGP star’s career seemed over when the World Anti-Doping Agency hit him with a four-year ban for taking illegal anabolic steroids in 2019. Iannone was already 30 years old, so what were the chances of anyone signing him once he was free to ride again, especially when Italy and Spain have rider production lines that churn out talent like Heinz churns out cans of baked beans?

Finally he did get a deal for 2024, riding a Ducati Panigale V4R for the Italian GoEleven World Superbike team, previously home to Chaz Davies, Eugene Laverty and Michele Rinaldi. Like most privateer WSBK teams, GoEleven doesn’t have much money, so Iannone had to chip in to make it happen.

His return to racing at February’s season-opening World Superbike round at Phillip Island was a fairytale – a podium finish in his first race since the last MotoGP round of 2019. He appeared to be a different character, but how different?

When Iannone first arrived in MotoGP he had a glint in his eye like a backstreet assassin from Naples. During his seven seasons as a multi-millionaire factory MotoGP rider – first with Ducati, then Suzuki and Aprilia – he acted like a moody movie star, who resented being interrogated by mere mortals.

Example: when a colleague asked what he did during the off-season, he replied: “Train and f….”

Then there is the Maniac tattoo on his chest, which reads,‘THE MANIAC INC – RISK ALWAYS – SINCE 1989’. You have to admire the chutzpah.

This time my question was simple: has four years without racing changed Iannone, as a racer and as a person?

I was told beforehand that questions about his WADA ban were out of bounds. Bad news but understandable; WADA doesn’t appreciate athletes like Iannone who disrespect its omnipotence, so the FIM (motorcycle racing’s governing body) and Dorna (WSB and MotoGP rights-holder) have gagged him from discussing the ban, to avoid more trouble with the anti-dopers.

The interview took place inside the GoEleven team’s truck at Donington Park, a much less glamorous location than a factory MotoGP team’s hospitality suite.

I started by mentioning his remarkable return at Phillip Island where he finished third and climbed the podium with factory riders Nicola Bulega (Ducati) and Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha).

“It was amazing because I didn’t imagine this result,” he said, “but from when I first came back to riding a race bike in pre-season testing it was like I’d never stopped. So I enjoyed it a lot, like a child, like a baby!”

Iannone hardly rode a motorcycle during his four years in racing exile, just the occasional track day at Misano aboard an Aprilia RSV4, so he wasn’t fully bike fit when he returned.

“But now I think my physical condition is in the best moment of my life. My head is also stronger, because when you struggle a lot in life you can exit this moment with a different strength. It’s all experience and not only bad experience.”

Iannone obviously did a lot of thinking during those four years – he appears humbler, more philosophical and all the better for it.

“Before I raced for manufacturers, now I ride for a small private team, but we have a lot of passion in the garage… I’m happy. I’m grateful because I’m here.”

Yup, it seems the ageing prima donna has definitely left the building.

The new Iannone was born out of the WADA case, which started when he failed a doping test during the Malaysian GP of November 2019. He tested positive for the body-building steroid drostanolone, later claiming the substance had come from meat eaten in a Malaysian restaurant.

The FIM gave him an 18-month suspension, which WADA increased to four years, because he protested his innocence without any real evidence.

Apart from training and thinking, what else did Iannone do during his racetrack banishment? A little Ballando con le Stelle (Italy’s Strictly Come Dancing) and a lot of romancing. Iannone has a taste for glamorous celebs, so much so that one Ducati engineer suggested they interfered with his racing. When he was at Ducati and Suzuki he dated actress Belen Rodríguez. When they split he went with another actress, Giulla De Lellis.

He currently enjoys the company of singer Edolie, who calls him, “my good, handsome, crazy-as-a-horse man”.

Iannone and Elodie live between the racing, fashion and music worlds, dogged by paparazzi.They’ve been together two years, so does having a long-term girlfriend make Iannone calmer?

“Also before I was calm,” he replied firmly. “Many people think about my life, I don’t know what, but I’m calm, I’m tranquil… I don’t know what people think, maybe that my life is a movie, but the reality is always different.”

Iannone’s four years on the sidelines weren’t all fun and frolics.

“I started to do real estate and construction. I have a passion for homes, I like to design homes. I buy old houses and restore them. I also followed the family business – we have some restaurants and clubs, so I started to understand what happens outside of racing, when you have many people working for you. It’s not easy to manage, so I started to appreciate everything.”

Presumably, life must have been grim without the adrenaline fix of racing? He said no, which surprised me. This time I think he was being economical with the truth, because earlier he had told Italian TV, “I miss the speed, I can’t find anywhere what MotoGP gave me.”

Iannone has a huge talent to race motorcycles. When he was Cal Crutchlow’s teammate in Ducati’s factory MotoGP team, his data traces blew the Briton’s mind – specifically how he used the front brake and throttle together, to exorcise chatter and minimise the lag between slowing down and speeding up.

“I don’t think about doing this – it’s my style, it’s natural. I do it because I hate the dead time when you finish braking and before you start with the throttle – waiting, waiting, waiting. If you put it all together you don’t lose time.”

Iannone graduated to MotoGP in 2013, after winning 125cc grands prix and challenging for the Moto2 world championship. In 2016 he won Ducati’s first MotoGP race since Casey Stoner’s last victory with the factory in 2010. He had a bright future with the Bologna brand until he asked for too much money for 2017 (according to his manager, Carlo Pernat).

“The feeling with Ducati was amazing, especially with the people. They believed a lot in me. For sure, leaving Ducati is the biggest mistake in my life.”

Sadly he left when Ducati’s Desmosedici MotoGP bike was in the ascendance and his next two rides were a disaster. Iannone signed with Suzuki for 2017. The factory’s GSX-RR had won its first MotoGP race the previous year, so this seemed like a good move, but the 2017 GSX-RR was a dud. Factory engineers had increased crankshaft mass, hoping for friendlier throttle response, but they went too far. And MotoGP rules don’t allow factories to change engine spec mid-season.

“The bike didn’t stop, reduce speed or turn. In August we tested the bike with a 2016 engine. The bike stopped, reduced speed and turned well. I was three tenths faster. We understood we had made a big mistake.”

This realisation came too late to save his ride, so he joined Aprilia’s MotoGP project for 2019. Again, luck was against him. This was the last year Aprilia used its problematic 75-degree V4 engine before switching to an all-new 90-degree V4, like Ducati, Honda and KTM. Only then did the RS-GP start pushing towards the front, but by then Iannone didn’t have a racing licence.

“I’m sure I gave Aprilia a good direction in 2019,” he told me. “I explained really well what we needed from the engine and the electronics, what the bike needed to become a strong bike. When the RS-GP achieved its first podium (with Aleix Espargaro in 2022), Romano Albesiano (Aprilia’s chief engineer) messaged me: ‘Thank you, Andrea, thanks to your work we achieved this result’.”

Iannone was hoping for a factory Ducati WSBK ride in 2025 but those hopes were dashed when the factory team decided to stick with Nicolo Bulega and Alvaro Bautista. Instead he stays with GoEleven, with increased technical support from the factory.

Iannone, who took a first WSBK win in September, believes he can continue his return to the top. “Last winter I struggled a lot because I put everything on myself – I found sponsors and I put in my own money to come back, because I have a passion to ride the bike and a passion for this championship. Now I’ve demonstrated I’m here and that I have the chance to do something big.”