The 2025 MotoGP Sprint Race at Phillip Island went down in the record books as the first race to be won with a passenger since the welcome and widely-celebrated demise of sidecars in the Grand Prix paddock.
MGPNews brings you an exclusive interview with Marco Bezzecchi’s wingman, Robbo The Seagull.
MGPN: G’day, Robbo! Can you talk us through what happened at Phillip Island on Saturday?
Robbo: No worries. I was flying along, minding me own business, looking for food to steal and people to take a quick dump on. Y’know, the usual for seagulls and San Francisco residents. Then me mate Davo suddenly says, “Crikey!!! Check out the booffy head on that fella!” So I look down and see Marco Bezzecchi sitting on the grid, sporting what was fair dinkum the best mullet I’ve seen in years!
MGPN: As an Australian, you must be a true connoisseur of mullets.
Robbo: You said it, mate! Anyway, I wandered over for a closer look. It took a few minutes ‘cos I was a tad disorientated from all the Victoria Bitter I’d been quaffing out of the stubbies and tinnies that tourists were chucking at me all morning. By the time I got down there, the riders were taking off on the warmup lap. In my inebriated state, I slightly misjudged things and ended up having a minor collision with the front of Marco’s bike.
(image credit: Albert Ignacious Slop)
MGPN: I have to say, you’re sounding pretty chipper for somebody who was blatantly killed during a televised sporting event that was broadcast live to dozens of overpaying subscribers and millions of dodgy firesticks across the world.
Robbo: Blatantly killed??? Don’t be a bloody drongo!!! Haven’t you read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach?
MGPN: Jonathan Livingston Seagull? Isn’t that the million-selling book that was published in 1970 and is full of navel-gazing New Age spiritual tripe, but seems life-changingly profound if you read it while you’re off your tits on wine and/or hallucinogens?
Robbo: That’s the one! Its the story of a Christ-like seagull who stands apart from the rabble. Anyway, one of the seagulls in the story fatally slams into a granite cliff face at 200mph and flies away without a scratch on him. So it was no big deal for me to survive a fatal collision with a MotoGP bike. It’s a pretty basic skill for us seagulls, to be honest. At least the ones who have read Jonno Livvo Seago by Richo Bacho.
MGPN: Glad to hear it. So what happened after you survived your trans-death experience?
Robbo: Well, I was slap-bang wedged up tight against Marco’s radiator, which was lovely and warm. You wouldn’t believe how cold it gets on the Island. I was freezing me bloody nuts off! And that’s seriously going some, ‘cos us seagulls have an internal nutsack like that South African bird.
MGPN: The Blue Crane?
Robbo: Nah, I mean Caster Semenya.
MGPN: Right. So you just decided to stay wedged in there?
Robbo: Sure I did, it was real cosy. Naturally, I stuck a wing out here and there to help the Aprilia turn and keep the front wheel down. Gotta support a bloke with an Aussie-sounding name like Marco. Actually, I had a convo with Gigio Dall’Igno after the race. He’s interested in having the Ducatis deliberately collide with seagulls on every warmup lap so we can act as illegal moveable aero. Expect it to start happening from 2027 onwards.
MGPN: Are seagulls generally MotoGP fans?
Robbo: Big time! Rossi fans, mostly. After all, we are a huge flock of obnoxious, squawking birdbrains that everybody hates! Although to be fair, there are increasing numbers of seagulls becoming Toprak fans. Those fellas are noisy, aggressive and unlikeable thugs, and us seagulls are nearly as bad!
MGPN: So you’re a Rossi fan?
Robbo: Nah, mate. I’m a huge Marc Marquez fan. I mean, he’s spent the entire year crapping all over Pecco from a great height! #93 is an honorary seagull, if you ask me!
MGPN: Did you stay for the podium ceremony on Sunday?
Robbo: Nah, I was pretty hung over and a bit bashed up, so I didn’t bother. Me mate Wayno was there, though. He pipped me to the Seagull of the Weekend trophy with an act of outstanding marksmanship.
MGPN: What kind of marksmanship?
Robbo: Wayno was soaring above the podium and managed to crap in Raul Fernandez’s boot after he took it off, but before he poured in the bubbly! You can see it on the replays, it was bloody priceless!
MGPN: Ugh, thanks for that. Anyway, we appreciate you taking the time to squawk to us.
Robbo: No worries, mate.
