For many years now, the vocation of Alain Bronec's CIP team has been to train new talents in Grand Prix racing. After participating in the training of French riders such as Mike Di Meglio or Alexis Masbou, the French team has also forged strong links with Japan, as evidenced by the exploits achieved by the late Shoya Tomizawa in the Moto2 category.
Today, the adventure continues, among others, with Tatsuki Suzuki, a young driver spotted in the Japanese regional championship, whom the French team included in the last two CEV races in 2013 before completing a full season there in 2014. Then it was the first year of learning the Grands Prix and its circuits, before starting a second season, now promising, in an extremely competitive Moto3 category.
During the last Grand Prix in Germany, Tatsuki Suzuki, who lives most of the time in Alès, birthplace of the CIP – Unicom Starker in France, crossed the finish line in 11th position despite a hand still injured since a fall in the Netherlands. Down..
At mid-season, we therefore wanted to take stock with Alain Bronec, in particular on this Franco-Japanese adventure, its objectives, its difficulties and its reasons for satisfaction.
Alain Bronec: “For this second year, my objective regarding Tatsuki is to bring him regularly around the Top 10. This is what we did in Germany where he rode very well, despite very tricky conditions and a configuration of the circuit not necessarily favorable. We are particularly very satisfied with his pace in the race which is only a few tenths behind those on the podium. Finishing second to the Mahindra drivers was also a great satisfaction.
In such delicate conditions, and having not yet fully recovered from his injury at Assen, it was a very good performance which shows that we are working in the right direction and that Tatsuki now has both the speed and maturity to take a step forward. additional cap.
For this, we still absolutely have to work on the tests to obtain a better place in qualifying. Indeed, we can see that Tatsuki now often drives in roughly the same times as the Top 10 drivers, but too often starting from the second half of the grid, it is for the moment almost impossible to hold on to the lead. good wagon. We must therefore really take care of the last minutes of qualifying where, often, everything depends on determining the positions on the starting grid.
Concerning Fabio Spiranelli, who is in his first season, we are also seeing great progress even if, recently, he had the misfortune, like other drivers, to fall while riding on oil at the Sachsenring and broke a hand bone.
Nevertheless, despite this, these two parallel adventures are very motivating for us and our partners, and each small progress noted is a great reason for satisfaction. »
