It was simply unthinkable not to react to the first victory of the Tech3 team in the premier category of the Grands Prix without collecting the reactions, impressions, explanations and emotions of its boss, Hervé Poncharal.
The man is verbose, we know it, and that is why we are publishing this very long interview in two parts, but we can be sure that reading his words, imbued with 40 years of experience, is not time consuming. lost…
Hervé Poncharal, after your first victory in MotoGP last Sunday in Austria, can we say that the day of glory has arrived?
Hervé Poncharal : " No, I wouldn't say it like that. I would say the day of great happiness which had been awaited for a very long time, since we attacked the premier category in 2001. Yes, that was the day when we touched the Grail, but I don't like the word glory , because I don't like glory, honors and all that. But what really touched me was the fact that I received around 700 congratulatory messages, and everyone was super nice. Not a single one was impersonal, without a minimum of soul. So it's not the day of glory, but it affects you enormously and you realize that these people are still there, despite periods of lack of results. »
« A lot of people follow MotoGP, from a whole bunch of backgrounds and a whole bunch of countries, and it was a great day, but I'm not looking for glory, because even if I have a public job, in good standing In general, I have always adhered to the maxim “to live happily, let us live hidden”. Obviously, I can't be totally hidden when I work, but I like to work in a certain calm and discretion. Even regarding the celebrations, apart from the explosion of joy of all the members of your team, which is natural, which is good and which is a pleasure to see, and apart from the emotion on the podium, I I also appreciate more subtle things like being with very close people with whom you have shared everything for decades, or even alone in the evening when you return to your room. This is really where you savor and enjoy fully. So a day of great happiness arrived last Sunday, yes ! »
If it's not too personal, what were you thinking on the podium while the Portuguese anthem was playing?
« I thought about all those years when we dreamed of that moment, and frankly, whether it was Guy (Coulon) or whether it was me, we didn't really believe it anymore, because when you run after something and that she has been escaping for so long, you no longer believe it. Furtively, I thought about that, and you also had all the people below shouting and clapping. It warms your heart. I also thought of all the people behind their TV and I wanted to send them lots of beautiful vibes and heart to make them understand how happy I was and how good I felt.
The podium is a special moment, because it is high and you feel a bit weightless. You are no longer entirely on earth. It’s a very special moment… »
How can we explain that you spent 20 years with Yamaha and a competitive machine without obtaining a victory, then that it only took a year and a half with a barely born KTM to obtain one?
« I think that the fact that the technical regulations have evolved as they have evolved, with the reduction of development possibilities, such as for example the single ECU, means that we find ourselves today with equipment much closer to the factories, even this year exactly the same. I also think that at the beginning, the manufacturers responded to the promoter's request to have a grid that held up, to also have access to the financial carrot that the promoter promised them if they supported a satellite team, but at the same time At the time it was fashionable to rent machines that were a year, a year and a half, or sometimes even two years old. And the satellite team was seen as a B team, which had completely independent management. »
« At the time, it was the teams who chose their drivers and signed them, who managed their structure completely independently, with a rental and technical support contract with a manufacturer. Over time, the factories understood the benefit of having four efficient pilots, four pilots who could give them information and accelerate development. It's obvious. They also understood the benefit of having a team that was no longer a B team, but a second team that tested and prepared future top drivers. So I would say that in recent years, most manufacturers have understood this, and we now have almost no independent teams, except perhaps Avintia, which does not have a machine of the current vintage. »
« Look at Yamaha, where the riders are very important in the Yamaha strategy and equipped with 2020 machines. At Pramac, which is no longer really an independent team but rather a satellite team of Ducati, the riders have contracts with the factory Ducati and there are rotations between Ducati and Pramac technicians. »
« So the manufacturers understood that, and KTM understood it right away. And during my first discussions with KTM, at the end of 2017, they told me that “if you come to us, KTM wants you to have absolutely the same equipment as us and that the four machines have the same specifications”. »
« Before, satellite B teams were more of a dead weight for manufacturers, whereas today they are almost a must to have. Before, manufacturers considered that they were doing a good gesture towards Dorna while recycling old motorcycles that would have gone to waste. Today, the manufacturers absolutely need a second team. Brivio, he's been struggling like crazy to get one for two years! »
« So to answer your question, I think there is also a global context. I'm not going to take shots at Yamaha and praise KTM: the technical regulations and the understanding of the importance of satellite teams from all the factories involved have favored this. We are therefore in a completely different position from the one we were in a few years ago, especially since having drivers under contract with the factory allows us to have drivers of a better level. »
« That said, it's true that with Johann (Zarco), and that sometimes with Colin (Edwards) or Ben (Spies), it could have done it! Sometimes, it comes down to very little things: perhaps there wasn't the understanding and the somewhat suicide attack of Pol on Miller or of Miller on Pol, maybe Miguel was 2 or 3! You also need to know how to maintain humility! Conversely, with Johann in Valencia in 2018, or in Argentina 2018, it didn't happen for a breath! »
« In any case, now it's done regularly whereas a few years ago we always said that it had to rain, like for Crutchlow. Now, whether it's Petronas, whether it's Tech3, or whether it's Pramac who can do it tomorrow, we can win consistently, without a fall and without any particular weather conditions. We are on equal terms technically, so obviously that opens up much greater possibilities for us than what we had until three or four years ago. »
Two years ago, you made a daring bet by leaving Yamaha and a comfortable situation with a high-performance machine. At the time, some people tried to justify this choice solely by a financial aspect. Today, we can clearly see that this is not the case since beyond Miguel Oliveira's victory, these latest results clearly show that the KTM has progressed enormously in a very short period of time. That too must be a great satisfaction...
« I don't like people who have feelings of revenge and who are angry with the whole world. So I forget these voices. But I have a particularity, which is that when it runs too smoothly and it hums too much, it annoys me. It's my personality, my way of being, and I'm amazed at everything I've done in my life, but when I was in a place where things were starting to stabilize and feel good, I left. »
You are referring to your first job at Honda…
« Yes, I had a really good place at Honda, I was young and they predicted a great future for me. But I left to create my company and I can tell you that at the beginning, we had no salary and we shared a small apartment with three friends. Already at that time, at the end of the 80s, people were telling me I was crazy. Not everyone is like that but it's something that I like and that's part of my character. »
« There is also the moment when we were with Honda which dominated in 250cc, while Yamaha was no longer present following a lack of performance. But I left Honda to go to Yamaha, when they were no longer in the 250 world championship. And it was the same: I was told that I was doing it for money, that I was crazy and that the Yamaha would never win again. Two years later, we were world champions! »
« I am neither a great soothsayer nor the greatest expert, and it also took success, but I like the challenge and it always makes me laugh when someone tells me that it is a lost challenge or let's bring out the financial argument. Because when I left Honda to move to Yamaha, I lost money, and I was financially better off when we were at Yamaha than what I had when I joined KTM . But somehow I don't even want to talk about it, and it's just to highlight that the arguments are always the same and which make me smile: people can't imagine that we simply want to 'a new challenge and a life, perhaps a little more roller coaster, but more exciting. »
« It's true that even more than when I left Honda for Yamaha in 250cc, I left Yamaha which was still a machine with which we made several podiums per year, front rows and pole positions, because I met the people from KTM, first Pit Beirer then Stefan Pierer, and I felt in tune with them. They told me things that I wanted to hear and I told them things that resonated with them. It didn't take much time because I believe that in life, even the most complicated things and the biggest deals, at some point there has to be a heart that speaks, there has to be there are feelings and something animal that tells you “you have to go, I want to go!” ". We must not make apothecary calculations on the financial aspect, we must not draw plans from the comet regarding technical development: at a given moment, either you clap your hand, or you don't clap your hand. not in the hand. This is how I do negotiations: I went to their house, I saw them, I saw their environment, I saw how they worked, I saw the light in the eyes of most of the people who worked in their workshops, and when you see that and when you know the history of KTM, you want to join. »
« I've already told you, I like racing, I like sport, I like human adventures and I like sharing strong emotions, but I also have a lot of admiration for entrepreneurs, the real ones. , people who start from nothing but who have a vision and who follow their instinct and their know-how. Whether it's Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Stefan Pierer or Dietrich Mateschitz who is the founder of Red Bull. These are people who fascinate me, so when I met these people, who told me about their project and their desire, I immediately wanted to go there. It's true that it's certainly dangerous when you make decisions like that, with your guts and your heart, because you quickly sign documents that bind us, but that's how I operate: I'm an instinctive and a guy who works at the heart. So I wanted it and I signed. »
What's the strategy for tomorrow, Herve? 🤔
“FULL GASSSS!” 💨💨💨#AustrianGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/fXU6A4J9jX
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) August 22
« I was very good at Yamaha, but once again it was humming, and at one point, the humming put me to sleep. Besides, at the age I am, I know very well that I won't have another fifteen adventures. I worked and learned a lot with Honda, with Suzuki and with Yamaha, and I can never thank them enough because the Japanese taught me a lot of things, so far be it from me to say anything negative. On the other hand, I had only ever worked with Japanese people and I wanted to race with a European company. I had this opportunity there, although it is true that the premier category of motorcycle competition is extremely dominated by the Japanese. We did see Aprilia from time to time as well as other brands, but it was always confined to the 125 or 250 in the two-stroke era. And every time there have been Cagivas or other projects in the premier category, it was always seen with a somewhat benevolent look on the part of the Japanese but we always said to ourselves that it would never work. Aprilia with its V2 was not bad but it wasn't really a response to what Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki were doing. »
« So I wondered why the situation would be permanently frozen, with only Japanese brands that can win in the premier category of road racing. It was part of a challenge that challenged me and motivated me.
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« And the last thing that really motivated me was that they told me “we want to go there with our technologies, with what we believe in, with what we sell and with what is our DNA and our brand image. That is to say with orange tubular steel frames, well the color is a wink, and our WP suspensions. At the time, everyone told me that as long as they didn't make an aluminum chassis and didn't have Öhlins suspensions like everyone else, it wouldn't be possible to perform. What I liked about Stefan Pierer was that he told me it was non-negotiable. We can imagine that he must have had moments of doubt and pressure, like at Ducati who at one point gave in to pressure from Valentino to make a bike like the others in order to win. But Stefan Pierer held on, and I liked that because I like people who stand out a little and captains who are at the helm of their boat and cling to it when the sea is pounding, saying "we're going to get there with this boat.” »
“When you race, you have to like the challenge and you have to like the challenge, and that's what competition is: it's betting on a technology, believing in it and trying to make it a program that wins. It's betting on a young driver, like today we're betting on Deniz Öncü who is very young and has just turned 17, and we're going to try to climb the ladder, like they did with Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira who are pure products of the Rookies Cup, then who passed through Moto3, Moto2, and who are now the only winners on a KTM MotoGP before both being teammates in the Factory team next year. So this whole set of things was super exciting: there was coherence, challenge, and that's why I didn't hesitate for a second ! »
