Herve Poncharal
MotoGP is an exciting and extreme
sport but a lot of times people in it
are very conservative. When you have
a situation like we had with Folger
leaving then you have two solutions:
take no risk – which is not ‘MotoGP’
– and you end up with something
boring that will bring zero excitement
and coverage and zero return for the
sponsors and investments or you try
to do something a bit more ‘rock and
roll’. You might lose everything or you
might have a good surprise.
Since Syahrin jumped on the bike in
Thailand for the second test of the
year he has been like a dream. I don’t
want to sound like ‘I know everything’
or take all the credit for this but I
had a good feeling. It is always a big
gamble when you change classes
and he was not dominating Moto2 so
it was an even bigger challenge when
you think that Zarco was double
world champion in the category.
So, I’m extremely happy because
not only has he been very fast but
hasn’t made many mistakes and
gives great technical feedback. In
Argentina where the track conditions
were challenging Michelin were
impressed. In Qatar he was in the
points and second behind the first
rookie, [Franco] Morbidelli, who is a
world champion and in the second
race he was the best rookie by far.
Besides the performance, the guy
is so refreshing, so different to the
‘superstars’ that you have to work
with sometimes. He is full of energy
and naivety but in a good way. We
are really happy. He is also from a
part of the world where business in
every department is booming. Overall
we are happy with the line-up.
Was it also a bit of a ‘win-win’
because any gains by Hafizh
could be celebrated whereas any
struggles from a leading rider like
Jonas would have been a different
situation…
“
I think Johann has
that confidence that
not many have. He
is not surrounded by
bodyguards or beautiful
girls. He is just focussed
on the job and is very
different to all the others
I’ve been working with
because he is polite and
almost shy in a way: but
not on the track. At the
moment he is a very
complete MotoGP rider.
Yes…but I don’t want to say anything
bad about Folger because we are
sad with what happened and he
must be also. It must be hard to lose
everything he has been fighting for
in his life until now and to see it slip
away with one decision. With Syahrin
we need to see how u
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