Recently, Massimo Rivola voiced strong criticisms about the World Superbike Championship regulations. The CEO of Aprilia Racing stated on the website Corse di Moto that the championship ‘has stupid regulations’, arguing that the bikes need to be truly derived from production models.
Gregorio Lavilla, the CEO of WSBK, has responded to Rivola’s criticisms. He defended the championship’s regulations on the website GPOne.com, asserting that judgments about others’ work must be made with respect and understanding:
– I read what Rivola said about the Superbike regulations. First of all, I wouldn’t dare to judge the work of other people. And if I had to, I would do it with respect, because you need to understand the other dynamics to do so. If he says the regulations are stupid, it means he hasn’t understood the interests of the manufacturers or perhaps doesn’t know about them, because a manufacturer that wins wants to do so through competition and merit.
Rivola believes that the regulations should have bikes closer to the Superstock, and Lavilla also addressed this opinion: ‘It means a bike with lower performance. So maybe he has a crystal ball and knows that in five years a Stock bike will perform better than the current ones? Certainly, most manufacturers aim for a product with considerable performance and exclusivity, and I respect that philosophy as well as those who say they do not identify with the market. Then there is something else. If with the Stock bikes we had a guarantee that all manufacturers were at the same level, it wouldn’t be a problem’.
The WSBK executive explained what is the challenge with Stock regulations: ‘The problem is that manufacturers have a different philosophy, and as a result, it is very complicated to achieve a balance. In all this, I don’t understand something else. He [Rivola] talks about the Stock, but where was he in 2013, 2014, 2015? He is so interested in the Stock that he thinks it is good to make a bike with a larger displacement to keep up?’.