David Alonso Gómez (Madrid, 18 years old) races under the colors of the Colombian flag in honor of his mother Marcela, and with her he makes history in the motorcycle World Championship. At the Japanese GP, the Aspar team rider confirmed his Moto3 crown in a big way, with another hard-fought victory after sweeping his second full campaign in the competition, where he is on track to break Valentino Rossi’s victory record. He accumulates 10 and has four more races, the pressure for the title overcome, to attack the 11 that the Italian legend achieved in 1997.
“Last night I looked in the mirror and started crying. Tomorrow you will be world champion, I told myself,” commented Alonso, excited, from the parc ferme. “I knew I would give it my all today, and it was a very difficult race. I have even thought about letting it be and waiting for Australia, but I gave it my all on the track to win,” he added. The boy thanked his team, family, friends and training centers for their unconditional support over the years.
Alonso is the first Colombian to triumph in the speed championship, the third South American after the Venezuelans Carlos Lavado and Johnny Cecotto last century. With an insulting superiority on the track and a contagious smile off it, he is the next great promise of MotoGP. “Even those who love you a lot still love you more,” Nico Terol, former 125cc champion and sports director of the team that will promote the talent to Moto2 next year, always reminds him. Even in this historic victory, the Spanish-Colombian pilot kept his feet on the ground, as his parents always taught him.
“You have to live dreaming, but with your feet on the ground. You have to enjoy the present and burn through stages,” says Terol in conversation with Morning Express. “What he is doing has been done by very few, and it is not easy to manage. When you win so many races, everything that is not a victory can taste like failure,” recalls the former driver from Alicante, who in 2011 won the title in the small category with eight victories. He was never able to replicate that success and knows well what he is talking about, although he recognizes that the foundations of his current pupil are truly outstanding.
“He is a nonconformist, a very fighter, and always knows how to emerge stronger from bad moments. On the other hand, when things are going well, and he achieves victories, he is very self-demanding. He has a learning capacity that I have never seen before. He knows how to take the good things out of everything and apply them successfully in racing and in life,” summarizes the person who acts as the kid’s right-hand man on the circuits.
Agustín, the child’s father, gave him his first motorcycle when he was five years old. The boy had always shown curiosity about that machine parked in the garage, which was nothing more than the tool to move work. I always asked for things with two wheels for Christmas. His talent soon became clear and little David understood the price of being able to compete on the circuits. The ticket to continue running was dictated by his grades at school, always excellent. Trained at the private plurilingual Santo Tomás de Aquinas school in the capital, Alonso speaks five languages and can even speak Chinese.
Insistent with his objectives, he was discovered at Aspar in 2017 when he was hanging around his garage during technical training sessions. “I told Jorge that there was a kid who deserved a chance, and he won the first race with us. It was in water, and he demonstrated all his potential, but from there to what he is achieving there is a world,” Terol recalls. Alonso’s projection led him to win the European Talent Cup and then the Red Bull Rookies Cup, the main gateway to the World Cup, all under the umbrella of the Valencian team. That victory in the main training category of the contest was nothing compared to the congratulations he received from his idol, Marc Márquez. That gesture made him much more excited than the title itself. Now, the Colombian even trains with him. “It’s a sponge. You tell him something and at the end of the day he does it better than you. He gives everything in training, and his spirit helps me stay fresh and youthful,” the eight-time world champion praises him.
Despite having grown up in Spain, Alonso is proud to be able to give a boost to Latin American motorcycling. “The more flags there are, the better. “I like to make this grow and be able to create more fans for motorcycles,” says the new champion. From Dorna, the Spanish promoter of the World Cup, they are delighted to be able to have an idol in South America, one of their priority markets for the future. In the past, only one Colombian, Yonny Hernández, achieved MotoGP without great results.
Alonso will visit Colombia, the country of his maternal grandparents, for the fourth time. This time he will do it to celebrate a historic title and hug the rest of his family, who resides in Medellín. He maintains contact with them by video call after the races, and his family profile is what those close to him also highlight the most. “Being a pilot is a stage, but then you must always be a person,” they say. “David is a 10 as a person, and his environment is magnificent and transmits very good values to him. He is a thoughtful, warm and sentimental boy, and anyone can see that he has a big heart.”
The number 80, which he consciously chose to have a single digit that reflects infinity, now has four races to try to achieve the best season in history in the small category. “If he beats Valentino’s record it will be great, but he has had a splendid season and the important thing is this title and his future,” celebrated Jorge Martínez Aspar, who has already accumulated seven titles as team manager.
