On a very regular basis, and for two years now, Hervé Poncharal has done us the honor of sharing his point of view with us after each Grand Prix (See here).
Listening to his words, which are the fruit of 40 years of experience, is always a pleasure, especially since the man does not have his tongue in his pocket. We thus share with you his emotions, which can fluctuate throughout the trials from disappointment to the greatest joys, without obscuring the small passing gnashing of teeth or, on the contrary, the flights which go well beyond sport...
And we thank him greatly!
When leaving Austin, while you were at the airport, you told us in a somewhat mysterious way “Hafizh Syahrin is a great man”. Can we have an explanation?
Hervé Poncharal : “(laughs) a great man means everything and nothing, but in any case he is a beautiful person, overall speaking. I think that in terms of driving, he amazed everyone, us first and foremost. We are in the front row, and behind the screens, we can analyze the times and the data, and for someone who only has 2 test sessions, Buriram and Qatar, he amazed us. There are riders with whom you can spend years, even their entire career, who never really get to ride a MotoGP. And there are others that click right away, and he is in the 2nd category. We don't forget that his last laps were at the Valencia Grand Prix and that he had not done a single test session, even in Moto2, before arriving here.
What he did in the race in Qatar was very beautiful. What he did in Argentina was even more beautiful, and it all left us speechless and very, very happy. We arrived in Texas with measured ambitions since we knew that the profile of the Austin circuit is very complicated for us. We knew it wouldn't be easy, but I think that with a little more experience, he could progress to Q2, while there were still Petruccis and Millers and company in Q1. If he had not been hampered in his first run and had waited less between the 2 runs, he could have done one more lap and it was possible to move on to Q2, which would have been a mega performance. .
In the race, he missed out because it's a circuit where you need a lot of engine. He had picked up Lorenzo and Miller but was losing meters when accelerating in each stretch. When you're ambitious and aggressive like he is, you put everything on the brakes. And he said that at one point he had been a little bit too optimistic and that he probably should have stayed behind, not trying to keep in touch to be able to overtake them. It was a little excess of beginner's optimism that made him lose the front due to an error on his part, since he was too aggressive on the brakes.
So all of this is downright astonishing, but what astounds me at least as much is his kindness, his education, the respect and the humble approach he has to life and racing. At one point, we were talking and I said to him “hey, next year we will be KTM. Would you like a KTM? ". He said to me “but I’m not here to say what I want. I am no one. I am simply the happiest in the world and I will go wherever I am told to go. Everything suits me, I have no special requests and everything will suit me.” However, even if this may seem normal to some of the readers of Paddock-GP, it is still a very rare attitude in the paddock, even from people who are slower than him.
And then, I don't know, but there's a breath of fresh air. I've already told you, but it's really nice when, every time he comes into the box, you feel like you're seeing a kitty in front of a Christmas tree. He embodies happiness and has not yet really digested the fact that he is in MotoGP, on a Yamaha and in the team which adjoins that of Valentino Rossi. And it’s beautiful!
And since, apart from that, he puts on the gas and doesn't make many mistakes, it's really nice! »
You mention his fall. In fact, there were two since he fell heavily during the Warm up…
" Yes. The entire MotoGP field was very worried about the track conditions which were not great: rain and mixed conditions. We were therefore very undecided about the choice of the rear tire, especially. So a lot of riders, Valentino, Maverick, Márquez, Pedrosa, and a lot of Ducati chose to ride with the hard tire in the Warm up, to see what it was like. Márquez drove very fast with it, even in FP4. We discussed it with Hafizh and he said it could be interesting. We told him to be careful because it was cool, and with a hard tire, you have to give yourself 2 or 3 laps to gradually build up power, but you don't take off like a rocket. But there you have it, on his exit lap, with a new tire, throttle cut but I think he came in a little hard, the rear gave way and in this case, it's highside. For the bike, it wasn't a big fall, but the problem was that the rider went into the air and landed heavily on his head and pelvis. He was groggy and had a lot of pain in his pelvis and buttocks.”
But he insisted on racing...
“Yes, he was declared OK to ride and there was no way he wasn’t going to ride. Besides, in the race, he was 12th when he fell and he had completely forgotten his pain.”
What is a kid's attitude when he returns to the box after making a mistake?
" He apologizes ! After the first fall he was a little groggy and went to the medical center, but by the 2nd he had absolutely nothing. He just slipped and hit nowhere. Obviously it's always a shame not to finish the race, especially when you're a young driver and you need to do a lot of kilometers, but in any case he had a great start to the race. He was fighting with guys who were much more experienced than him, and perhaps better equipped technically, on a difficult circuit and after a big fall. I think we can't blame him for being ambitious and wanting to progress by staying in contact with these people. So our attitude was to reassure him before he returned directly to Spain, without going through Malaysia, to avoid the delay and the rest. I actually have a little photo where he is cycling near Barcelona, where he is based in Spain, and even if his butt hurts, he is riding and will be in great shape in Jerez .
Really, we are in love with him! Me, his technical team, Johann's team, and even Johann! Johann smiles at the character between tests and has full respect for what he does on the bike.”
To be continued…
A few minutes after we published these lines, Hafizh Syahrin released these photos…
Austin MotoGP Championship: Ranking
| 1 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati | ITA | 46 |
| 2 | Marc MARQUEZ | Honda | SPA | 45 |
| 3 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | SPA | 41 |
| 4 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Honda | GBR | 38 |
| 5 | Johann ZARCO | Yamaha | FRA | 38 |
| 6 | Andrea IANNONE | Suzuki | ITA | 31 |
| 7 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | ITA | 29 |
| 8 | Jack MILLER | Ducati | AUS | 26 |
| 9 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | SPA | 22 |
| 10 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | ITA | 21 |
| 11 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | SPA | 18 |
| 12 | Alex RINS | Suzuki | SPA | 16 |
| 13 | Hafizh SYAHRIN | Yamaha | MAL | 9 |
| 14 | Pol ESPARGARO | KTM | SPA | 8 |
| 15 | Alex ESPARGARO | Aprilia | SPA | 6 |
| 16 | Jorge LORENZO | Ducati | SPA | 6 |
| 17 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Honda | ITA | 6 |
| 18 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | JPN | 5 |
| 19 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | GBR | 4 |
| 20 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | SPA | 4 |
| 21 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | CZE | 1 |
| 22 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | SWI | |
| 23 | Bradley Smith | KTM | GBR | |
| 24 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | BEL |
