Salvo Pennisi

Salvo, Sicily is a region known throughout the world for its natural beauty and its artistic patrimony. But perhaps not everyone knows that it is also a sacred place for motorcycle technology.
That's true. In fact, in Sicily there are no fewer than three very demanding circuits - Pergusa in the province of Enna, Siracusa, and Racalmuto in the province of Agrigento - where the big motorcycle manufacturers often test their new models with us before putting them into production.
Outside the three tracks, Sicily is an open-air test centre of extraordinary effectiveness by virtue of its orographic structure. In practice, it is as if in 300 kilometres there are concentrated, for example, the road characteristics of Germany, Greece and North Africa with an ample variety of road conditions, both in terms of route configuration, altitude and surfaces. Road surfaces of inert lava alternate with others of calcareous or with a basis of granite grit: conditions to which the tyre responds with varying behaviour, permitting us to gather a broad spectrum of data. If we also consider the weather conditions of the island, which enable us to work 12 months of the year, I would say we have explained why all the producers of Pirelli motorcycle tyres like Milan, Breuberg and Gravatai, make their way to Giarre before taking the road to the marketplace.

You have lost just three working days in the last five years due to bad weather: good fortune, but also immense commitment, considering there are 20 of you to work on a thousand fronts.
A thousand fronts is a little over the top. The fact certainly is that we are at the service of a multiplicity of 'clients'. To begin with, R&D, for whom we carry out all the handling and intensive tests for all motorcycle tyres. But we also work for marketing, who involve us in the organisation and running of new product launch events, like the Scorpion Trail last June. How are we able to take on all these activities? We are a team with diversified roles: every one of us is intensely specialised. In handling tests, for example, there are those who are expert in the supersport segment, others in sport touring, the big enduros - and so it goes on. This facilitates the attribution of the objectives and optimises the achievement of them. And then there is the organisation of work: we are used to rigorous weekly planning. We start on the Friday with planning the activities for the following week. On the Monday, we are ready to fit the bikes with test tyres as well as all the other equipment for instrumented tests.take into account that every second we are in the saddle is recorded by a kind of black box. Then we leave for the test sites and we meet up again on the Friday of that week to report our findings. A sort of report card on the tyre, which we send to our colleagues at R&D.

Specialisation and organisation, two words that are more German than Sicilian, another surprise for people who do not know the reality of Giarre.
In fact, two words which are very Sicilian, as it happens, and we express them from the heart. You see, we do a job that we adore. One that is fun. You can imagine what it is like if we have the chance, even during the weekend, to test on the pure loose surfaces of the Nebrodi or the Peloritani. The truth is that we are passionate about motorbikes. I completed my classical studies and I studied jurisprudence: but today, I am head of Pirelli's Motorcycle Testing. This tells you that first came the enthusiasm and then knowledge. First the heart, then the head. And Pirelli, naturally, is a company that has given me a lot, in fact a great deal in my over 20 years of activity: to me and to my boys. They are people who are continually updated technically and who learn English. Test riders are born as mechanics and in a short time they are able to have dialogue with the engineers. And to reason out their sensations. Because a test rider 'senses' the motorcycle, the tyres, the road: then he has to translate all of this into technical experience and work it out. Having worked as a journalist, then as a technical consultant to Pirelli and later in testing, I myself have learnt to decode emotions. And this exercise has served me well and is useful to me in life: at this point, nothing happens without me asking myself questions: but why has this happened? I always try to understand matters, to transform them into knowledge. And into control.

You have been with Pirelli since 1986. In all those years you have only had six accidents with consequences, but not even a single night in hospital. What is the secret of this record?
First of all, respect for the rules: don't drink alcohol the day before a test; never reject systems of protection; faithfully observe the planned route and the Highway Code. And take care of your body. We all pay a lot of attention to our condition and also to our physical appearance. And then a serene life: I have a family, that's a lot of fun, a wife and three children, who have already grown up. Yes, family tranquillity is fundamental to concentration. It can happen that one of us arrives at work wearing a bit of a tense expression, so we all understand that there could have been, for instance, an argument with the wife, which happens in the best of families. "Look, Salvo, today I can't climb onto a motorbike", one of them may say. And that's no problem; it is not for anyone, despite the fact that we are all men at Giarre. Safety first of all. And reason out the sensations.