We took advantage of the major event for French speed, the French MotoGP Grand Prix at Le Mans, to interview the President of the French Motorcycling Federation, Sébastien Poirier.
The opportunity to take stock of the situation, between the high level which shines in the firmament with fabio quartararo et Johann zarco, and the actions undertaken to strengthen the intermediate levels and the first rungs of the pyramid of speed motorcycling.
President, we are not asking you if you are well, the day after the French Grand Prix which allowed the French to shine again. For the start of our mandate, the year 2021 is looking good, in any case for the French speed that we particularly follow, despite the global health situation...
Sébastien Poirier : “yes, it’s true that it’s a bit of a special start to the year, because on the one hand I would say that we are lucky to have champions who are shining and who are in the process of exploding all the counters and records, our two champions in MotoGP, and on the other hand, on the slightly more Franco-French scene, we are in a little more difficulty and in daily work with the State and the administration to ensure that we can resume our competitions in the best possible conditions. It's a little bit of this schizophrenic side of 2021 that we have to manage, with a lot of pleasure and happiness to see French motorcycling and in general motor sports shine, and even more generally France to be represented by our two champions, and at the same time being in difficulty in the deployment of our different calendars, even if with regard to speed we can be satisfied with the fact that we still managed to be able to organize and announce our French Superbike Championship season respecting the calendar, even if the events are behind closed doors. »
It's still the start of your term as president, but it was not the first French Grand Prix as President of the FFM. How did you experience this?
“As general manager, I already had the chance to attend the French Grand Prix which always constitutes a milestone event of each season. The French Speed GP is where the world of speed and the world of motorcycles come together, and it's the event where you have to be present, so I've already had the opportunity to attend this Great price. Last year, it was my first official outing with my new president's costume, since the Grand Prix was the day after the federation's election. So this time, it was my second Grand Prix, and unfortunately a second Grand Prix behind closed doors, although it is something that we would like to share with all the fans. But once again, let's not indulge in our pleasure because I think that today we are lucky to have French drivers who are at the forefront in the premier category, and it's a somewhat unique moment where we share with them the pressure, the stress, the sensations and the desire to win. It's always a very good event and we are also lucky to have two great champions who have a sense of their homeland, because I had the opportunity to meet them on Saturday afternoon and we see that there also wants to participate in ensuring that motorcycle sport, through them, is valued and popularized. I think they are perfectly aware of the role they play and will play in the future to popularize motorcycling in France. The Canal+ audience was truly incredible and I imagine that with regard to your site there was also a boost. In any case what is certain is that through them we succeed in making motorcycling popular and ensuring that it is a sport that is watched and that we do not only see the danger or the black jackets and the bad boys, through their image, without being smooth because we are really dealing with people who have a real personality and it shows. Above all, they are real athletes and good athletes. »
If the top of the pyramid is doing really well, we know that the levels below require real work, and the numerous press releases reporting on the actions taken confirm this. Can we detail these actions?
“The fact that there are numerous press releases does not mean that nothing was done in the past: that was not the case at all! But today, I think we really have to take stock of the historic chance we have to have two very fine champions who dethrone the Spanish flags from the podium. This is a truly fantastic moment for us, the French Motorcycle Federation.s. Afterwards, this time must translate into an ability to welcome new audiences. This corresponds to the campaign elements that I had the opportunity to deploy last year, that is to say that we must democratize and seek out new licensees and new practitioners, from the public roads to the circuits: all drivers who ride a sports car today on the Paris ring road have their place on sports equipment. They have their place, they are completely legitimate to go and ride on a speed circuit, and we see that today there are many men and women who choose to ride on speed circuits.
And the second axis consists of going to collect young people and ensuring that we can communicate on » I start motorcycling, in a peaceful way, in a structure which is designed and with an educator who is trained for this " . So today, we are working a lot on a first objective which concerns the structuring of the labeling, that is to say that we are completely reviewing our labeling criteria to ensure that all the structures that exist today and which are not labeled can integrate federal labeling. This is the primary objective.
The second objective on which we are currently working with our regional leagues is to be able, like what we know how to do in motocross, to develop and deploy speed league championships. I think it is very important that we can offer fairly quickly, I hope, from 2022, a certain number of league championships in the region. This will limit travel costs for parents and will also make it possible to offer riding to a larger number of young beginners. The idea is really to ensure that there is an intermediate step between the training that we can experience on a circuit, either karting or on a large circuit, and the competition. Today, there is no real regional level, except in certain very very exceptional leagues, and I think of what Gwen Giabbani managed to put in place in Normandy, or of the situation in Occitanie. But beyond that, there is nothing, so the idea is really to structure league championships, and our role, the federation, is to support this structuring to ensure that in 3 , 4, 5, 6 years, there are league championships who live their life perfectly, like in motocross. That's the project.
To be very clear, the high level is the tip of the pyramid: the wider the base, structured and stronger the pyramid, the more beautiful it will be and will offer real radiance. That's really our objective: to structure the base, with labeled schools which are part of a federal project, then to develop the first level, the first level of competition at the regional level, and then to reposition the France 25 Power championship which must be in my opinion where there are a maximum of fights, where our best young people meet and where there is a need for fights. The problem today is that there are not enough fights between our best young people, and this is the real difference with Spain and Italy. So when our young people pass the threshold and wish to go to races abroad, whether as part of the European Talent Cup or the CEV, they lack this experience of fighting in packs, hence the importance of recovering mass so that they grow together. This is the objective, and there is therefore quite intense in-depth work and meetings which must now be translated into action. The goal is that by the end of 2021 there will already be announcements that are a little more structural, a little more visual and marked, so that parents who would like to send their little ones to a school or to a league championship know exactly what is needed. to do and where to put them. »
Honestly, we have undertaken to materialize this famous pyramid, and if the work is relatively easy near the summit, the further away we go the more multiple and complex it becomes: even for us, the first rungs are not really easy to do. find and understand. We therefore imagine the task for parents who are not from the community and who ask themselves the question » my child wants to ride a speed bike, where should I start? “ ...
" It's exactly that ! Where, when, how and how much does it cost? It's not more complicated than that : » I am in such a region, in such and such a department, my son wants to become the future Fabio, I am ready to invest a little bit of money without it being unreasonable, how do we do it? “ . We need to be able to answer this question very quickly, and it will happen through schools. Why schools, because one could say "wait, you have 1300 clubs, call one of your 1300 clubs" . I say yes and no, because there are structures which have an appetite for training young people, which have an appetite for welcoming them, and others which do not have this appetite, others which only open their practice site, and I think about motocross, and then it's only » fend for yourself and learn on your own “ .
So in my opinion we must direct them towards structures which today have put in place a training logic, a recurrence in training, and above all have educators who help them progress. So in fact, the work that you are doing corresponds to the assessment that we have drawn: today, between the 25 Power, between the schools, between the Promosport, it is difficult to find one's way in the ideal route. So we are going to define the backbone of what a typical course could constitute, obviously knowing that there are always exceptions and that there are always bridges, because it is not a question of fixing the things themselves if there is a big trend, a big backbone, like motocross. In motocross, we know what we have to go through: training, league championships, 65cc, 85cc, there is a French Minivert Championship which is the benchmark. So between the ages of 7 and 11, we need to know what we have to go through, where we are controlled, where we are seen, where there are selections, and it is on this that we will write and reposition very clearly in a more readable way, I think that we should not be afraid of being more readable and of being in a process marketing, we have to “market”, in quotation marks, the path which for the moment is not natural.
This is explained because today you have a lot of age categories, so I think we need to write a backbone of the high level, of the course of excellence. We are in the process of doing it, because in fact, when we ask an educator where one should be at eight years old, the answer is more complicated than when we ask the same question to a motocross educator. So this is the work that we are currently putting in place, and we are really hopeful that things will be in place for the start of the school year. It's not simple because there are many actors and speakers, but in any case this is what we are going to put in place in schools, in the sectors, and I hope that we will have partners, that the motorcycle world will help us, and I hope that there will also be a Made in France side concerning the sector of excellence, because it is also a difference with Spain and Italy : partners invest in their sector.
We therefore hope, through our project, to bring together the major French players to ensure that we are part of a long or medium-long period. The high level is not a short time, it is a construction which takes place over an average time and we must not skip the steps. Once again, I often take the example of Fabio who did not have a linear path. On the other hand, we always knew that he was a very, very good driver, an exceptional driver. So we also have to pay attention to these paths which are not necessarily linear, and accept that a champion can have ups and downs. »
Between the base and the top of the pyramid, we have recently seen a lot of initiatives, so much so that there was a certain day under the aegis of the FFM where things were happening at the same time in small committees at Carole and in Perpignan…
" Quite ! What we have put in place, and this is new for 2021, are two collectives, a 25 Power collective and an Objectif Grand Prix collective. It's new and these are two collectives that work on young people, even very young people: we regularly bring them together for rolling sessions to help them progress, create emulation and create a group dynamic, like of what we have developed in motocross. At the same time, we set up a wildcard in the world championship with the GMT 94 and Yamaha in the 600 category, and the idea, in addition to this wildcard, is to organize gatherings with the best young people French pilots of 600 so that they too can work and progress together, create group emulation and mark the interest of the federation among the youngest. This is why we organized this training session reserved for the best young 600 Challengers, to support them in their progress, see with them what they need, and get to know them better to better follow their journey and their progression. There will be two courses this year for the 600 collective, in addition to the various courses for the Objectif Grand Prix and 25 Power collectives. »
All this seems to be going in the right direction but, at the same time, a threat is becoming clearer on the speed bike, that of measures against noise. We saw this recently with regard to Albi but it is not only a French problem since certain countries are even starting to want to ban the use of motorcycles on certain portions of their territory. You recently brought together the major players in French motorcycling on this subject…
“Yes, noise emissions are a real subject. We bikers want to hear something when we ride motorcycles, and our spectators also want to hear something when they attend motorcycle races, but on the other hand, all the detractors and all the neighbors want less noise. So we have to find a balance. We can say whatever we want but today noise clearly constitutes a threat on a certain number of French circuits, both motocross and speed. It is a subject, a threat, and it is also an obstacle to development: we must be very aware that noise constitutes an obstacle to our development. It is not for us to say that tomorrow motorcycles will no longer make noise, quite the contrary, and it is precisely because I want motorcycles to still make noise tomorrow that we must regulate it. . Otherwise, politicians will naturally direct us towards electric!
So the objective is to reduce our noise emissions at the source, and to work so that we can define a road map, collectively with manufacturers and importers, so that within 4,5 or six years, I will not don't know, we know where we will be. The sooner we will have resolved the noise problem and we will have reduced our noise emissions, the sooner we will be freed from this threat and this sword of Damocles, and the sooner we will be able to deploy and develop. Today, I formed a working group which is chaired by Jean-Marc Desnue, who is my first vice-president, to bring together different commission presidents and the different importers–manufacturers. This is a very complex issue but we are working on this substantive subject and we want to release a roadmap by the end of this year. The FIM also works on the world championships, so today there is consideration of the problem which is clearly expressed, but we, FFM, will define a specific roadmap for access to our circuits, because we absolutely must free the circuits of this sword of Damocles. »
Overall, are you an optimistic president?
“I am naturally and fundamentally optimistic, so I am optimistic without any restraint! But it is precisely because I am optimistic that I try to ensure that, tomorrow, we can still ride motorcycles, and we must prepare for the future. This does not mean that we should not see the threats that weigh, the reality, and the environment is one of them. Noise is a major issue, and when we see that the rooster, in certain small provincial towns, has had its existence challenged because it made too much noise, we must not feel outside of the community. world. We are in a whole: there are people who adore us and support us, and there are people who no longer want to see us, either because we make too much noise or because we represent the world before , the one who consumes fossil energy for fun. We must not be naive: we must arm ourselves, we must work on the subject, and we must be able to say what we really are, with truly positive things. I really believe in the values that we convey, I really think that in this degraded world, this world which has suffered in recent months, the motorcycle has a lot to tell and can really be this space of freedom, of breath and of big breath of air. We must therefore take advantage of it collectively but be aware that we are not alone in the world and that we must take into account environmental issues and public peace. We must not be afraid of the future but we must find answers collectively. »
