While Valentino Rossi was achieving success in MotoGP, Livio Suppo was building a successful career in motorcycling, but from the outside as a technician and team leader.
In an interview with Moto.it, the former Suzuki manager recalled: ‘I brought Valentino to Benetton. We had a meeting, and there were Graziano [Valentino’s father], Gibo [Badioli], Vale, and there were Alessandro [Benetton], Mauro, and [Luciano] Benetton’.
Despite coinciding in the early stages of their careers, these two prominent figures in MotoGP never had a solid relationship, as Suppo recounted: ‘Let’s say that, except in the 1990s, where we had some occasional relations, we never really had a formal relationship. We never worked together, never had dinner together, but from a certain point on, I always worked for the riders who were his biggest rivals, so obviously it’s more difficult’.
Currently, the two Italians remain distant, despite Il Dottore having retired: ‘I have great esteem for Valentino because we’d be crazy not to have esteem for what he’s done for this sport and for the talent he had, but I can’t say I have a relationship with Vale’, said Suppo.