While the GP competitors arrive in Texas for the 3rd round of the season, the motorcycle endurance world championship is negotiating its first meeting of the 2016 season, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Despite a structure provided for this purpose, the Paddock-GP team has decided to concentrate for the moment on the Grands Prix and not (yet) launch coverage of Endurance, in order not to be dispersed during the launch of our very young site.
This does not prevent us from keeping an eye on this discipline which is experiencing a resurgence of youth and which is once again attracting Grand Prix drivers (and also teams...).
Louis Rossi, after having experienced difficult times in Moto2, embarked on this bet with the
GMT94.
As he sets off in a few hours for his first 24 Hour event, we asked the winner of the French Moto3 GP in 2012...
Louis, What are your thoughts on the first two events of the season?
Louis Rossi: “The feeling I get when watching GPs from home is that it's less 'readable' than when you're immersed in them. So you really have to be interested in the subject to understand the tire stories, the paddock issues, some of which are new this year and generally speaking, I find it a quite interesting sport to follow! But before, as I was in it, I didn't realize it! »
In Moto3, the victory of Pawi, a pilot in a daze, This must have brought back some memories for you?
Louis Rossi: “What was great about this Moto3 race was that it allowed a young kid to put himself forward. And what's more, there were even two Malaysians in a position to get on the podium until the penultimate corner, so it was a pretty incredible moment. In Qatar too, there was a young Italian who stood out, we saw the Mahindra give encouraging signs, so it's a start to the season which is a pleasure to watch! ".
We know the friendly ties you have with Alexis Masbou, what reading do you have of his first two GPs... does it seem complicated?
Louis Rossi: “There is clearly a lot of work to be done on this bike but I have no doubts about Alexis' abilities. He has already shown that he is very fast, and he is even more so when he is in a good headspace and can fight up front. Today, things are going badly and everyone sees it, I believe that his bike must evolve to allow him to shine. I will concentrate on sending him good vibes so that the trend is reversed.”
In MotoGP, does it ultimately seem more open than expected?
Louis Rossi: “Yes because all the 'big guys' are present but they are all capable of making small mistakes, whether on suicide attacks or because of bad feelings. In two races, none of them really put themselves forward, except Marquez who was the most consistent but he did not take a huge lead. I am very happy to see that Valentino Rossi was able to recover between the two GPs even if he clearly lost confidence while riding his second bike in Argentina. Despite everything, we expected him to attack with a spirit of revenge, and I am not disappointed with the spectacle, quite the contrary.
Let's talk about you now, we've often seen you as a spectator at the 24 Hours motorcycle race whenever the GP calendar gave you the opportunity. Here you are now, a few hours before the start, behind the wheel of a machine that is going to go for victory. Is that a special feeling?
Louis Rossi: “First of all, there is a whole myth of endurance that I really liked. If I could have done it last year, I would have participated, even during my Grand Prix season. I didn't have a good 2015 season and I didn't want to continue with teams that didn't give me the opportunity to fight up front in Moto2. Because even with this possibility, it was not said that I would be capable of it myself. So I was looking for an opportunity to ride a good machine to have a chance of winning a world champion title. In my head, it was very clear: either I found a handlebar that would allow me to fight in front of you, I would stop competing. I started by looking at Supersport but the options I had didn't suit me. And then there was this possibility of riding with Yamaha in the world endurance championship. We did a test session to see if everything was going well and it was convincing from the first laps of the wheel and I also discovered a new atmosphere. When I see all this, I say to myself that I probably should have made this choice before because there is a whole 'human adventure' side to it. There is an incredible investment from the mechanics, setting up the bike with 3 riders is really not easy. There are a whole series of things which make this championship a very complex, very rich whole, which was ignored for a few years but which is coming back and which will come back even more to the forefront. Today, when I sit in my box and I see everything that is happening there, I tell myself that I am very happy to be there.”
New team, new machine, new discipline? Do we find our marks quickly in this context?
Louis Rossi: “It’s easy to do if you drive fast. IF I had found myself at number 15rd place, still far from my teammates, it would have been more complicated. But I had the speed, I had to find endurance, consistency. This is the point that took me the most kilometers but in a way, it's logical. Regarding the bike's settings, I quickly realized that there wasn't much to do on this bike. We are still working on settings but we are not revolutionizing everything and the pilots do not spend hours in front of the computer to find solutions. We've done a lot of work fine-tuning the electronics so that they suit us perfectly, we've been working hard on them and we can see the result: we're fast in the dry and in the wet, my two teammates are very effective and I, at the moment, am a little less comfortable than them. I also know that a 24-hour race is viewed differently from a GP, we will have to adapt.”
You tried twice to set up a GP team with Alexis Masbou, is this ultimately a possible challenge in endurance?
Louis Rossi: “Honestly, I don't think about it at all because I've just joined an official structure and I'm focusing on that. When I see the amount of work required to be a team manager in endurance, it far exceeds that of GPs. You have to manage your human teams, put in place race strategies, that seems extremely difficult to me. In addition, today, I have the chance to join an official team with the confidence of a brand, it is not to launch me into a risky bet tomorrow. There are people who do this very well, I want to take advantage of this official driver status that I have never experienced before. When you have the chance to experience it once in your life, it’s really great.”
