After this first opus of the 2016 season, we collected what Hervé Poncharal, freshly re-elected as president of the IRTA, retained from this long weekend on the Losail circuit.
But Hervé Poncharal is like good wine; once you taste it, you can't stop! Also, during this long conversation, between a point of view based on long experience and anecdotes, we discover, for example, a possible composition of his team in 2017.
And as a bonus, the boss of the Tech3 team told us what has been stopping him from sleeping since his return from Qatar…
Hervé, what do you remember from this first Grand Prix?
Hervé Poncharal: “Even if Moto2 was a little truncated and we were left hungry for the reasons you know, and even if we suspected it after the tests in the different categories, we have confirmation that we is going to have a championship, all categories combined, excessively open and contested, and even more contested than last year, even if the tenors remain the tenors whatever happens.
This is the first thing and I am of course opening doors, because I am not the only one to say this.
In MotoGP, we saw that Michelin passed the entry exam into the premier category with a 'very good' rating, with a great race but above all a hell of a pace with times that tend to improve, like you pointed it out with your curves. Not only Lorenzo, but also many drivers, including ours, set their best time in the last 4 or 5 laps. We had already been able to observe it in race simulation and you saw that Bradley did not even return to the box to change to new tires in Q1, since the tire performs more and more as the laps go by, especially in conditions a little cool.
So not only do we have high-performance tires, but we also have tires with which they can attack at the start of the race because, as we saw, it started quite quickly. We were a little afraid about the time needed for this adjustment but there was no problem, at least in Qatar. And these tires have a consistency in performance which certainly promises us legendary final laps in certain races.
We saw in the premier category that, despite the significant changes that are the transition from Bridgestone to Michelin and the unique electronics, we still have the quartet, even the quinté, or even more if Iannone had not made his mistake, but in any case last year's quinté. So it's true that it didn't change the hierarchy but you had to be stupid to imagine that Redding, Barbera or Smith were going to fight for victory. »
Given the tests, we would still have thought that Vinales could have been in this group, right?
Hervé Poncharal: “Yes, but he said it, we perhaps expected too much of him in relation to the tests. It's true that given his tests, his simulations and the tricks he was able to do with Rossi or others, Rossi was the first to say it:
“Vinales will stay with us throughout the race”. Yes, we can therefore say that from this point of view, there was a semi-disappointment. But I think it's delaying in order to jump better, that the Losail circuit is special, that he was certainly still suffering a little bit in the two main straights, and that, intelligently, when he saw that he wasn't quite on the pace, he chose to take big points.
He finished the race 15 seconds behind the winner but 20 seconds ahead of his teammate! So Suzuki has progressed, they have a very competitive machine, but it is still far away with Aleix, while in my opinion, in certain races and in some time, it can claim regular podiums with Maverick. This is confirmation that he is very strong and that he will become a future great. »
After the Sepang tests, we left a Mr. Poncharal who told us "listen, with all these factory machines, I'm going to do between 10 and 15" while one of your motorcycles ended up in the closed park, last Sunday…
Hervé Poncharal: “Yes, so after this general overview and coming back to Tech3, I was frankly very pleasantly surprised and very happy to see Pol and Bradley fighting where they fought.
They have once again, especially Pol with a very very average start after which he got into trouble with drivers less fast than him, in short they lost a lot of time on the first laps, but if you look at the lap by lap , let's say from a big halfway point, it's quite similar to what Vinales and Pedrosa were doing, or even from time to time Valentino on certain laps.
They both did 55 somethings at the end of the race, which was by far their best lap, so yes I'm very happy. We were very afraid of the factory bikes, and therefore also of Aleix Espargaro, because Vinales we knew they would be in front. We also thought that the Pramacs were going to be formidable. Unfortunately there was poor Danilo, and I want to point that out because it really saddened me, because he worked a lot to finally find himself on the sidelines for a while...
In any case, that was one less Pramac. Redding, I don't know what happened to him but in any case we expected him to be much more flamboyant.
So finding yourself 1 and 2 of the independents, even if I don't like being 'the best of the rest', it's rather good news.
Especially since Pol had major vision problems over the last 7 or 8 laps. Why, I don't know, but he sweated a lot more than in practice, and when braking at the end of the straight, the sweat he had on his forehead came onto his visor. It was totally soaked with sweat and, in Qatar, with the light you can't see anything! That's why Bradley was able to pick him up. Pol said that on the last laps he was driving almost blind. Sometimes the pilots exaggerate a little but there, when he gave us his helmet in the parc ferme, we put it in the light, and honestly, I don't know what he did...
So I think he has a way to do better, Bradley recovered well at the end of the race while the two falls he had during the weekend had damaged his confidence a little. But he found it again in the race, so yes, even if I don't like to say that I'm very happy to do 7 and 8, because it may seem unambitious, I'm happy to have done 1 and 2 in teams independent and I think that we can still, by working a little bit, overcome part of the handicap that separates us from the Factory.
To be honest, I feared this Qatar Grand Prix and I sincerely did not think that we would be first satellite. So we did it, it's very good, and it's also very good for the morale of Pol who works a lot with that and who can perhaps confirm for his third season, all the good that the managers of Yamaha thought of him when investing in him. »
So, it’s interesting, because…
Hervé Poncharal: “Yes, I see you coming… (laughs)”
LinJarvis said very recently in his press conference that ultimately, eventually, there would probably be one of your two pilots who would stay with you. However, with the announcement of Bradley Smith leaving for Ktm, we can legitimately think that Pol Espargaro will still be there next year, right?
Hervé Poncharal: “It is true that when you look today at the level of Pol and Bradley, and when you look at the names of those who are potentially probable, if we really want to play the role of Junior team, who are there in the really young?
Well then, for Johann, I think, and there are many sources which say it, that it would be done at Suzuki, and in any case, he is a few months older than Bradley and almost a year older than Pol…
Sam Lowes signed with Aprilia and he's not young anymore either.
So in the really very young ones, there is Alex Rins.
Is Alex Rins, in his first year, going to be at the level of a Bradley Smith or a Pol Espargaro? I do not think so. We saw that he still had a few things to learn. He still had a big fall in qualifying, then a 'jump start' in the race, even if he was not the only one. He is a guy who is very talented and who will do very well in MotoGP, but it will take time.
Besides him, who do you see?
I want to make the junior team, but at some point, we also have to deliver correct results with relative certainty to our partners. So for me, indeed, it wouldn't be bad to have both a “young old man” who can serve as a leader and coach, with a very young person with very high potential but who, de facto, will make a mess.
It's not stupid. And as you say, if there is one left, it will be Pol. »
To be continued…
