Frankie Chili--perhaps the most popular Superbike rider in the world. image by little markie wernham

It's been suggested that Frankie Chili has the most fans of any rider in World Superbike racing. Certainly my day spent chasing him around the Silverstone paddock attempting to get an interview seemed to bear this out as fact. Everywhere he went, even on a relatively quiet Friday qualifying day, there was a small group of autograph and picture hunters following or waiting around for him. Hanging around his pit box, his motorhome and his team's hospitality area soon made me feel like one of Frankie's groupies—and he's a hard man to catch.

I finally got him to sit still long enough and talk to me late Friday evening in his team hospitality area. Here's what the popular Italian had to say for himself:

SuperBikePlanet: You have a new challenge this year with the move to Honda after many years with Ducati.

PFC (Pier Francesco Chili): Yes, many years with Ducati but sometimes I didn't like what they do with and so I take a different solution as a privateer and sometimes it worked good and sometimes not so good.

Now it is a different bike with different suspension, different team. I bring with me some people from my old PSG team and things have worked well.

We have some problems with the suspension that we have to fix.

SuperBikePlanet: The team are enjoying your experience when trying to fix these problems?

PFC: I hope they are enjoying it, and I hope to get a good result for the team because they all work for that.

SuperBikePlanet: What do you think of your new team?

PFC: I like it very much, I like their focus. Klaus (Klaffenbock, former sidecar racer and multiple world champion) is a very clever man and he tries to give to us all that we need. The problem around the world at the moment is economy. The economy is slow and it is hard to find a sponsor and this is the problem.

Klaus is really friendly, he is not here today because he is in the Isle of Man but he comes here Sunday. He called me before today and told me to go out there and show them who is the best. Those words went straight to my heart and made me feel good.

SuperBikePlanet: How different was it to get on the Honda after the Ducati?

PFC: Of course it is different but also it is the same, it is just a bike. And I know once we have everything fixed we can be very fast on it. Everything is the same, we have suspension, an engine and a throttle. You must find everything. You can see today we are making progress and I hope to keep making steps.

Sure something is different on the bike but if you are a good rider you don't care if it is two or three or four or even five cylinders, you just ride. It has wheels and a throttle and brakes, you just get on and do it. I have no preference, the only preference is to win. When I was private with Ducati I could win a race with a private bike and that made me, and many people very happy.

SuperBikePlanet: Excuse me for saying this but you are the oldest man in the saddle of a World Superbike race bike, this is a great inspiration for some people because you are still successful and so active even though you are approaching your 41st birthday very soon. But does your age bring any problems.

PFC: I don't feel to be old when I am on the podium! But I do feel my age if I am not winning because I feel everyone my be saying "oh, he is not winning anymore because he is too old". In the first race of the season I make fifth place but at times in the race I was the fastest rider on the track and that made me feel good - and young!

I have noticed some difference now though, I have a lot of problems with my body. I cannot run anymore and I have problems with my hip and some with my knee after the crash in Phillip Island. I broke a ligament.

SuperBikePlanet: But that is perhaps more to do with injury than age? You could be suffering the same way from these injuries if you were still in your twenties.

PFC: Yes, it is true. My passion for the sport is still there though and when I get the results it comes even more. When I don't get the result then I start to think maybe it is time to stop. And I have to be honest with myself, one day the time to stop will come. But if I can still get the results and make my team happy, and myself, then I will keep on working. If they are starting to think that I am not as good as I was before because I am not delivering the results to my team then they maybe will think it is time for me to stop, I am too old to win anymore.

But even this year my team, my mechanics and people around me have all said to me "believe in yourself because you can do it". Sometimes I try to help the young guy in my team but the mechanics say to me " think about you, first, that is important".

SuperBikePlanet: Look after number one!

PFC: Exactly.

SuperBikePlanet: What are your plans for the future, are you thinking of team management?

PFC: Yeah, maybe. I start to think about my future. But I am not interested in running a team unless the budget is there. If I can find very good sponsors I think I have the people and experience to do it properly. I wouldn't do it unless I could do it properly, I don't like to be here just to be here. As a rider, I have to be here to win and that will be the same even as a manager. I want to give the same good feeling to the people working with me as I get when I so well now.

SuperBikePlanet: Do you have thoughts about helping younger riders as a team manager, maybe bringing up new talent in Italy?

PFC: Yes, and I also have good staff behind me and I know they can teach the younger rider.

SuperBikePlanet: Would you want you own children to be riders?

PFC: Not yet and I hope I will never be their team manager!

SuperBikePlanet: Away from motorcycles what keeps you going, what do you enjoy doing?

PFC: My wife has two beaches near Misano where we rent umbrellas and deck chairs and things. This is not the kind of business that brings in lots of money but what it does is it keeps me in touch with reality. I see there real people, ordinary people and it helps to keep me close to the people who are in a more difficult situation. This teaches me that life is not really about racing and money. That makes me strong.

I like to do sport and I ride a bicycle, I like to race bicycles. But my knee is making that difficult so I go to the beach for some swimming in the sea.

SuperBikePlanet: Do you have a philosophy or a religion that helps you in your racing?

PFC: Yes, I am religious and I draw strength from that. I get the power before the race by thinking of all the people in my family and who is real. I need also for the race their power and I ask before the race for them to help me to do it.

I think also that God is beside me and he gives me protection. My father he died when I was 14, very young, and I think of him before I race. I ask him to help me to do a very good race.

SuperBikePlanet: Your family is more important to you than racing?

PFC: My family is most important to me. But it is not really the race that is important to me; it is to ride very fast, to ride to a very high standard and to beat everybody—that is what gives me satisfaction and makes me happy.

SuperBikePlanet: Have you always been very competitive in your life?

PFC: Always, even as a young child I always wanted to be the best or win anything I do. My wife gets very angry with me when we play cards because she says I take it too seriously and always have to win. I try to memorise all the cards that have gone so I can beat her and she doesn't like it! All that I do, I do to win and I don't like to lose.

SuperBikePlanet: What's your take on the one-make tire rule with all riders on Pirelli?

PFC: It stop immediately the situation where Ducati were strong because they have the Michelin tire. They put the racing more close, the situation is better for everybody.

What I don't like that the kind of tire they give to us makes it difficult to be faster than previously, to even beat the old lap records. Sure, the show is better but I would like the show to be faster too.

So I hope they find the way to have a good tire, or the best tire. Having the same tire choice for everyone is better, but I would prefer to see a more competitive tire to raise the standard again.

I think Flammini has to put the situation on the table and say to the manufacturers, all of them, Dunlop, Pirelli, Michelin and even Bridgestone, what can you offer the series for 2006, what package can you offer? But I think it isn't likely. I think we will stay with Pirelli.

SuperBikePlanet: Because of money?

PFC: I don't know, I don't know. Maybe it is because of money.

SuperBikePlanet: Were you personally frustrated by the tire situation before?

PFC: Sometimes. I want the best tire. I wasn't always getting the best tire at the start of one season from Dunlop and then they came to me and asked me to test a tire. I said why you ask me to test when you don't give me the best tire to race? They said " just test". So I did and I told them exactly what I thought and after that they always gave me the best choice. They know me and I know very well them.

SuperBikePlanet: Is it possible that running a series like this on what isn't the most competitive tire out there isn't good for the riders?

PFC: Possibly. But I believe that whoever is the best rider, who has the best luck, the best team, they will always be the winner.

SuperBikePlanet: Who will win this title this year?

PFC: At the moment Corser is very strong. But you never know what will happen - even in the next race and it is still quite early in the season, there are a lot more races to go. So if he stop for some reason in a race then Vermeulen is there and he is very strong also.

SuperBikePlanet: What is Corser's secret this year?

PFC: He has been working two years with this bike (points to the Foggy Petronas hospitality) and he was working good. But he knows he is a rider that can do it. Maybe he can get some money from working for them but no satisfaction, it is not so good for the rider. He is not so young, he is clever and now he has a family. He is not the person he used to be.

I believe he also now has a very good bike, one that has had lots of testing. They are at the level they are at today because they start with a bike that is basically very good and then they work hard before the season start to make it even better. So they come here at the start of the racing in very good shape.

I am happy for him because he is a friend and I am glad he is getting the satisfaction of winning. But I would get more satisfaction if I could beat him and I truly believe I can.