Laurent is full of activities with, among others, the Z&F Grand Prix School and the European Talent Cup. As the season ends, let's take stock with him.
The Z&F Grand Prix School competed in its fifth and final round of the year in Ganges with the PW50 and ZFM150 Yamaha. Are you satisfied with how the school is functioning?
“This year the school has made a lot of progress. The parents have become fantastic because they are well disciplined, as they should be. We have a level of driving with the Pee Wee which is superb since track records have been broken, even by up to eight tenths. Not only the parents, but also the little ones are well disciplined and that makes me very happy.
“This year, there were 38 of us in PW50 and around ten in ZFM150. Next year we will be 16 to 17 in 150, and 39 in Pee Wee, so our school is only growing. The little ones are well supervised with Seb Moréno, Andrea Fellon, Adrien Corger, Loïc and Xavier, it's really just happiness.
“We have good weekends, we teach the little ones, on Sunday there are the races, it’s fabulous. I'm really happy because it was intense work at the beginning, but now it's really getting better and better, and I thank the parents who agreed to follow a mold to achieve great results. »
You spoke to me last year about Corentin Perolari who was in training with you, and he replaced at short notice Mike Di Meglio this year in the Supersport World Championship within Christophe Guyot's GMT94. In the last 3 races, he finished 6th in Magny-Cours and Losail, and 5th in Argentina. Were you surprised by his performance?
“No, because I think that Corentin at some point in his life grew up. He has reached maturity, supervised by Christophe Guyot who is a good person and a former teacher. I think he did him a lot of good, because he had a lot of potential when he was young. He had support from Christophe which gave him serenity and the possibility of climbing the ladder.
“He was already talented as a kid, but then going to the World Cup is another step. It is difficult to help young people to grow well because you have to hold their hand firmly, even if it means being tough at times to bring them to the high level. It was Christophe’s entourage that allowed Corentin to progress so quickly. »
In 2019 we are heading towards Grands Prix with two French riders in MotoGP (Johann zarco et fabio quartararo), but zero in Moto2 and Moto3. Isn't this worrying for the long term?
“The problem is that to create a pilot – I think I can talk about it – it takes a long time. It's like a farmer who sows his seed, makes it grow, takes care of it and spends days making the plant grow. So it’s a whole set of things that will help the kid develop. Afterwards, when he understood, he became champion, but it took a lot of work.
“There is a lot of passion in Spain for example, among the Catalans, in Valencia or in the Cuna de Campeones there are 250 little ones, and many other young people in the South. They can then, like in football, detect the kids and make them fit into a mold. This mold allows you to evaluate the pilot, to see if he is intelligent and if he drives well. If you have volume, then you can detect.
“In France, we have taken away the passion because people think that it is very hard to take a child and make him grow in the right direction. In Spain, PreMoto3 Champion Marcos Ruda already has a strong team behind him (editor’s note: Cuna de Campeones). He is already going very fast, is supervised by good mechanics and a telemetrist. There is a method.
“That's why at our Z & F school the little one must understand that his parents are making an effort to make him run. It's not up to parents to instill a passion for motorcycles in their little one, it must come from them.
“Fabio Quartararo, for example, is leaving the Catalan Championship, and Johann Zarco is leaving the minimoto in Italy. This is why for our school it is important to have partners who support us (editor’s note: and therefore the list appears below) and give us a big helping hand. All that is complicated, and I say that to have the next Frenchman in the Moto3 World Championship, it will take at least two to three years.
“It's going to be complicated because it's long, it's work, and the little one must not give up along the way because it's hard. And for a boy, there's puberty and all that that comes into play. We must continue to work to reach the high level. But it's going to be hard because there are a lot of good championships in Spain, and Valentino has taken charge of training in Italy. We can't take that away from him because they all come from the VR46 Riders Academy. He made a business out of it with the Malaysians. So that primed the pump and it's smart because now, there are Italians everywhere.
“Why wouldn’t we be as capable as the others? Passionate people need to come together to create sectors. There are two French people who are very strong (Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo), and to have others, many “peasants” need to get to work. »
What are your goals for 2019?
“We have the Eyguières track which will open thanks to my whole team. There are kids coming out of school who are worth it. One of them is Lorenzo Fellon (my son) and another is Hugo de Cancellis who is not a bad boy at all. He finished thirteenth in Misano in the Supersport 300 World Championship. We have to support them to make them understand that they need a solid mentality, like the Italians and the Spanish. I believe in them a lot.
“I hope it will work well from the sidelines and in training with Johann as well. »
Photos © ZF Grand Prix School
