Last Wednesday, we took advantage of a quick visit to ParisHervé Poncharal, not to take stock of the past season since we already did it, but to shed light on the activities of a team of MotoGP during what is called the winter break.
The interview took place in the spectacular setting of the Train Bleu establishment, Lyon station, while the boss of Tech3 was waiting with some impatience for his TGV to leave the gray Parisian and return to the blue sky of the Var coast . And the least we can say is that a few days before the first MotoGP tests in Malaysia, the men from Bormes-les-Mimosas are not idle...
Hervé Poncharal, what are you doing in Paris on this deluge day, and more generally can you describe to us the activities of a MotoGP team during this month of January?
Hervé Poncharal : “Winter is the time when we prepare for the new season and there are many things to do. At the team level, winter is first of all the time when we take stock with all the staff to find out who is staying and who is going to leave. There is always movement because obviously with 22 Grands Prix, 44 MotoGP races, there are people who find that it is too much, and so we take stock and this is the moment when the people who leave , they must be replaced. You have to do interviews, et cetera. Then, we redo the logistics because the designs change almost systematically, so when there are big changes, we repaint all the trucks, we redo the boxes whatever happens, and in any case from one year to the next we remade all the team's clothes. We prepare the reservations, we make the plan with the drivers, so there is a lot of logistics and organization to prepare the first trips for the first test sessions, the first Grands Prix, et cetera, et cetera, and then also it is necessary to finalize the agreements with the partners for the coming season.
At the IRTA level, there was also a lot of work to be done this winter because we all remember the sad news of the loss of Mike Trimby during the Misano Grand Prix, so we had to reorganize a lot of things. things at the IRTA level with Dorna, a lot of work, travel, meetings.
And then, we meet the day after an evening with our partner Motul who is organizing a seminar throughout the week with its global sales force, with all the managers from all of Motul's global branches. And so last night, we had a superb dinner at the Café de l'Homme, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and of course we talked about racing, we talked about MotoGP, and we got to know a whole bunch of people that we don't systematically see at races.
Meanwhile, our MotoGP team, the entire technical team, is now in Austria at Pierer Mobility to assemble the new motorcycles, what we call schooling, and prepare the boxes with the 2024 motorcycles which will leave at the end of the week for Sepang.
The staff will return for a short week, and from January 27 or 28, they will all be in Sepang to prepare for the tests which will begin, what we call the shakedown, which until now was reserved for rookies and drivers. tests, but now also to the drivers we are going to tell the two Japanese brands which have concessions for the first 3 days, which will be February 1, 2 and 3, followed by the other 3 days of Sepang testing for everyone .
Our pilots, Monday and Tuesday were in Cologne where there is a wind tunnel which is one of the most efficient in Europe, to do aerodynamics. It's always a very very interesting exercise because there are so many parameter sensors which are studied and which are understandable by the technicians, and also especially the pilots who see that sometimes a foot is a little out or an elbow a little little out, it has significant effects on top speed. We worked, we found interesting things, both for Augusto and for Pedro, for whom it was a new exercise.
So 2 days in the wind tunnel which is a fairly intense work exercise, and then 3 days at the APC, the Athlete Performance Center, it's a structure which belongs to Red Bull, where all the Red Bull athletes, whatever whether the discipline, car, motorcycle, bicycle, swimming, diving, finally all Red Bull athletes, go. It's a place that may not be unique in the world, but in any case extremely efficient, where there is incredible technology and, for example, the best specialists in mobility problems following spinal accidents. There are some really leaders on these things, and when they leave there, they have a completely clear assessment of their physical condition, of the sectors on which they need to work. They also meet nutritionists. They will also work with the Red Bull hospitality cooks, so they will be followed all year round. And as they go there often, there are comparisons compared to the last time, to have a clear vision of their physical state. 44 races, it's super hard to manage for the body because the bikes are more and more efficient, we race in difficult conditions, Indonesia, Malaysia. Qatar et cetera, so more and more not only do you have to have a high-performance machine, but they have to know how to manage themselves and be at their best over the entire duration of a Grand Prix.
So we rightly call it the winter break, because there is no racing, but it is not a period where the teams rest. We never stop!”
So the media put Tech3's name on the front page twice this winter, once to announce the probable arrival of Red Bull on your MotoGP fairings, and a second time to announce the arrival of carbon chassis on your GASGAS RC16. Can you tell us a word about these subjects?
“So regarding the technique, we are relatively confident, but that once again has to be confirmed by the Pierer Mobility competition department, but we are relatively confident that the 4 pilots, therefore the 2 KTM Binder and Miller and the 2 GASGAS Tech3, therefore Augusto Fernandez and Pedro Acosta, should be able to benefit from carbon chassis. Will it be from testing at Sepang, or after? I am confident that from Sepang we will be able to have them, but in any case, it seems that this chassis provides better sensation and performance for the drivers. It is much more complicated to build and manage in terms of maintenance, but the decision was made that the 4 pilots will be able to have this type of equipment.
Binder and Miller did what is called back to back, the comparison between the two. It remains to be done for Augusto Fernandez and Pedro Acosta, but if by chance they validate, the 4 drivers should have carbon chassis, which makes us very happy and which means that we have the assurance that in 2024, the 4 pilots will have the same technical status, the same technical support and the same development in chronological terms.
Concerning the other subject, it is always complicated to deflower a subject before it is officially announced. If the official announcements no longer announce anything, there's not much point in making announcements, so I'm not going to comment on the colors of our MotoGP and Moto 3 team, but all I can tell you is it is that GASGAS and Tech3 will see their destiny more and more linked. So draw whatever conclusions you want. And there are discussions which are very constructive and which make me personally very very happy on the possibility that the energy drink partner that you spoke about, in this case Red Bull, could possibly be with us in Moto3 and MotoGP. . We had lost them since 2020 and we really hope that from 2024 they will be able to be with us, but let's not put the cart before the horse, and wait for a possible official announcement which, alone, will indicate that the negotiations have been successful.
