We won't go so far as to say that this interview could constitute a Christmas present, although, but it is rare that an interview contains so many interesting elements, as long as one knows how to read a little between the lines.
Guy Coulon, who ended the 2020 season with a magnificent “hat trick” (pole position, best lap in the race and victory) in Portimão after a first victory in Austria, gave us the pleasure of giving us a little time, between a session milling and truck desticking. In the Tech3 workshop in Bormes-les-Mimosas, the man is always 100%, so we consider this a privilege that we share with you with pleasure.
At the moment when the faithful associate ofHervé Poncharal has decided to slow down a little after 50 years on the circuits, and he will tell us his vision of the future, that of the 2020 season is, let's say, a little spicier than usual! We are certainly not going to be choosy…
Guy Coulon, last year at this time, you told us your objectives for 2020 : “With Miguel, you would have to be around 12th all the time. That means regularly being between eighth place and 15th place, and scoring points in every race. But for that, we have to put a lot of good bikes and good riders behind us. »
With two victories for Tech3 and Miguel Oliveira, we can say that they were more than largely achieved…
Guy Coulon : " Yes, I think we achieved the objectives since Miguel finished ninth in the championship, which is better than the 12th place target. Last year, we struggled to be in the points, so the idea was to be in the points all the time this year, effectively between 12 and 15th. But that was before we tested the new bike, so obviously we didn't know its potential, which proved to be far beyond the progression we could have imagined. To understand clearly, we have been riding motorcycles in this category for a long time, so we roughly know the possible progressions. But there, the progression between 2019 and 2020 was out of all proportion to the progressions we experienced over the previous 20 years. »
However, externally, we saw almost no difference between the 2019 and 2020 motorcycles…
« (Long silence) Mmmmm… it's because we rarely removed the fairing! »
Without betraying any secrets, can we know in which areas the motorcycle has particularly evolved?
« The engine was the same, except for one change in management. In any case, it almost evolves from race to race, but the engine was the same. On the other hand, the way of manufacturing the chassis is radically different. But it's still made of steel, and it's still orange, to follow the boss's instructions!
The suspensions have also improved but they were already good, so they have progressed like everyone does every year. Aerodynamics have also improved.
In fact, we were just talking about it this evening with my colleagues, during the season we didn't have to touch the engine, the frame, the swingarm, the aero, etc. During the course of the season, which was extremely rapid and very concentrated, we only did exploitation: we did not change the type of fairing, we did not change the engine, we did not we didn't change the arm, we didn't change the suspension link. It's the same bike!
Because it is still quite new, and by the time we discover it, there are already things to do, and as we have always been better in the second race than in the first race when there are any. had two, which means we didn't use it fully, at least on the first one. The better we rode, the better it was, and we have more understanding now than at the start of the season. »
On the track, this translated into improvements in which areas?
« In terms of chassis, the bike has made progress on what we asked for as a priority, that is to say on weight. She went from being significantly overweight to being under the weight limit, so we now have to ballast her to be at the legal weight. So that’s already free everywhere!
Then, the second point we asked concerned the speed of execution of adjustment operations. It went from very, very slow to fast! Before, there were a lot of adjustment operations that we couldn't do during a session, so you waited until the end of the session to try the next session. But as the conditions always change a little, it was complicated to interpret and took a lot of time, whereas here, in the time of the pilot's debriefing in three minutes, we can do everything: the arm axis, the column of direction, and everything you want, all this is done very quickly. So instead of waiting to make an adjustment in the next session, you do it in the next run and you have your answer right away. And that was essential!
And then, regardless of that, the engineers worked really well on the bike's genes: it stops well, it turns well, there's traction... It's a good bike!
Before, it was physical, because it was heavy to change direction. Last year, we sometimes had difficulty finishing the races in terms of the tire, whereas this year we never had a problem finishing the races: we always had reasonable and controlled wear. Also because we were able to adapt it quite well to this year's Michelin (rear) tire.
In this area, there are two things. There are people who say "Michelin tires are not made for our motorcycle", which is false since they are not made for any motorcycle. They are as they are, so either you say “they are not good for our bike” or you say “we have to adapt our bike to their characteristics”. And that's what we did, and that's what others did, and that's what others didn't do well or didn't try to do! For example, well it's another area but it comes together: we arrived at Aragón-1 and the four KTMs really didn't perform well. And as they had done well in the other races, we could have said “ah, it’s not a circuit for us, it’s not a circuit for the KTMs”! Instead, we put together a plan of attack, with Sebastian Risse, Mike Leitner and the four chief mechanics, telling ourselves that we had to do better than the first week. So we had Monday and Tuesday to think about it, so we thought about the question. We all thought about it on our own then compared our results and we were all generally going in the same direction, but with slightly different ideas. And since we have the same four bikes, which is a good thing, we decided that this rider would try this direction, that this rider would try this variant, etc. Afterwards, we put everything together and refocused everything on what was best. Result, the following week, with the same ground temperatures, the same tires, the same bike, the same riders, the same opponents, we went from 16th to 5th or 6th, with our two bikes in the first five or six . Only on the on-board settings that we had available and on understanding the problems. If we had just said “the circuit is not made for us”, we would have stayed around 15th place.
Because motorcycles that are not made for this and that, I believe in them less and less. Whether you don't know how to cope or you can't do it, yes, but the tires are made for Ducati, for Yamaha, etc. I don't believe it for a single moment! Tires have their characteristics, and some are better than others at exploiting them. I also think that we are lucky to have at KTM a tire strategist for all four riders who is exceptionally strong! Usually, before the first session, she can already make a prediction about which tires will be used in the race, because she has enough knowledge and information to have good ideas. And at the end of the season, she could predict tire wear left and right, and at the end of the race, we were only a few percent off her predictions. So we knew what we should put or not, and that's important. I won't tell you her name because I don't want others to contact her (laughs). »
