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!
We now present ourselves to the French Grand Prix after an eminently positive weekend in Jerez, since Johann Zarco continued to line up the starts on the front row and the finishes in the points.
Hervé Poncharal : “so it’s true that we don’t really like talking about this kind of statistics, especially points finishes. I was talking about it to the members of the team earlier, and the journalists are doing their job and I don't blame them at all, and it's true that it's now been 21 races that Johann has finished in the points. I don't know the exact statistics but it's starting to be part of the good scores, and that means that since he started his career in MotoGP, apart from the small misstep in his first race, he has always won the finish in the top 15. We are very, very happy about it, as are his qualifying scores. It’s fabulous, it’s fantastic! Now, it's happening just before we get to the French Grand Prix so, obviously, and once again I can't blame them, but all the fans, the media and even us, we want the series to continue. But it's not because we have done these first 8 rows and these 21 races that we will automatically do as well at the French Grand Prix. Each race, you have to reset everything. Each race is a new adventure, we know that. We don't know the weather parameters. We know that last year the Yamahas were very good throughout the weekend at Le Mans, but we saw that the Ducati had progressed enormously, that the Honda is a much more accomplished and better balanced machine than last year. , that the Suzuki has just made 3 podiums in a row... so there you have it: we're going back into battle, but we're starting from scratch on Friday morning at the French Grand Prix.
That said, we say it every time we speak, but it’s true that what Johann is doing at the moment is fabulous! Each time he arrives at the Grand Prix with a fighter, warrior attitude, hyper positive, with a really very strong desire, with an attitude that is always very humble but determined. He works a lot with his team. From Wednesday onwards, he is on the circuit doing his laps on foot, watching and consulting the data, watching previous races, notably those at Le Mans last year. So he’s someone who works a lot, who will never rest on his laurels, and that’s what makes us very proud, very happy, and also optimistic about the rest of the championship.”
So let's get back to the championship. You are ranked 2nd there. Has this ever happened to you in the premier category?
« Il faudrait vérifier, mais à 99,9 %, cela ne nous est jamais arrivé. On a déjà fini 2e d’une course avec Cal Crutchlow, notamment au Mans en 2013, mais jamais au championnat. Après deux courses, Crutchlow était en tête et nous étions 3e. Maintenant, cela fait 4 courses et il en reste encore 15, mais ça commence à payer car on peut commencer à cerner les forces en présence, les forces et les faiblesses de tout un chacun. Ça me rend très très très fier ! Car même si le regard que les autres portent sur nous n’est pas ce qui nous importe en premier, j’entendais souvent “oui mais là c’est un coup de chance”, ” oui mais là c’est parce qu’il avait des pneus tendres”, etc. Alors que là, et je pense que Márquez l’a bien souligné dans les commentaires après course en disant que dans ses adversaires principaux il y avait Andrea Dovizioso mais aussi Johann Zarco. Il a aussi dit qu’il ne comprenait pas comment Yamaha avait pu laisser partir et perdre un pilote de talent comme Johann Zarco. Donc il y a vraiment maintenant, de la part de l’intégralité des observateurs, que ce soit médias, sponsors ou chefs d’équipe, un respect pour ce que fait Johann, et maintenant une certitude que ce n’est pas, comme on nous le disait l’année dernière, le fruit du hasard parce qu’on prenait des pneus plus tendres que les autres ou parce que la Yamaha vieux modèle était plus performante que la nouvelle, etc., etc. Aujourd’hui, les Honda sont des machines ultra homogènes, les Ducati également, les Suzuki reviennent, et malgré tout, on se retrouve à faire des résultats aussi bons voir un peu mieux que l’année dernière où on disait qu’on le faisait parce que la Yamaha était la plus équilibrée. La Yamaha, c’est une très bonne moto, encore faut-il savoir s’en servir en tant que pilote, et encore faut-il avoir une équipe technique qui comprend bien la moto et qui comprend bien les désirs et les besoins de son pilote. Il y a 4 Yamaha sur la grille, et à part le Texas, la #5 noire est toujours devant… »
Can we say that it is all the more beautiful work since things are not easy. In Jerez, Friday was not easy, and even on Sunday, we understand that you were a little worried about the medium front tire...
" Yes ! No weekend is easy! We had doubts in Argentina, we had difficulties and doubts in Texas, and in Jerez we had a complicated FP4. We know that the choice of tires is a crucial choice, and so we are always torn between trying as many types of rubber as possible, or trying a little less and completing the race distance with each of the rubbers we try. And we can't do everything. In Jerez, we decided to skip the hard tires, both front and rear, and we saw that many, in FP4 and even in qualifying, used them. So when we saw the track temperature rising to close to 50° on Sunday, it's true that on the grid I was a little worried about the second part of the race, because we know that Jerez is a circuit where we have a lot of skating and where the second part of the race is very, very difficult to manage when we have these temperatures on the ground. I was a little reassured when I saw that Márquez, who had planned to start on a hard tire, decided almost at the last minute on the grid to change his rear tire for a medium.
And then there is Johann, race after race. I give you an example. He struggled at the start of Q2. Well, struggling, let's say he wasn't fast enough and when he stopped, just before doing his last run, he told us "I don't know how I'm going to improve". And at that time, he was in the 3rd line. He came out, and there he slammed us for a 3rd time! When he came back, we asked him, and this is something that he really has particularly strong and perhaps more than a lot of other drivers, is that when he feels that he is at the end of the technical package in terms of performance, he will work on it. And he told us that during his qualifying lap, he changed his way of driving to be able to be penalized a little less in the sectors where he was a little less good. And it paid off right away! And that is the prerogative of adults, and there are even adults who are not capable of doing it. Márquez, yes, he manages to transcend himself, but you have to be totally attentive to your bike, in osmosis with your bike. And that's what he told us after the tests in Buriram: he understands better what the bike needs. And he drives differently from 2017, and he adjusts it differently from 2017, especially electronics and engine. Initially, you always want to have a lot of power, but sometimes that might not be what you need. He winked a little and said that he was at 93% of understanding his machine, but that means that he is evolving and that he is not far from really being in osmosis to understand what to do, depending on the tracks and the grip. And what's amazing is that he almost always manages to come back to what to do and how to adjust his bike to perform well on the big day.
This is exactly what Marc Márquez says about his carbon swingarm: “if you ride the same, you ride the same. You have to understand what the bike needs to go faster” (See here).
" Yes yes. I completely agree with Mark. Either way, I have enormous respect for Marc. Today he is the strongest and most complete driver. It also makes me very, very happy that he considers Johann to be one of his most serious adversaries, and besides there is a real respect and a real friendship between the two. You can see it when they are both in the parc ferme: they look at each other, they hug each other or they high five each other. It's clear that generally speaking, I'm very, very proud of what our driver is doing with our technical team. There is real teamwork and real understanding. Johann understands, listens and lives with his motorcycle. And our team manages to understand what Johann is telling him so we can give him what he needs. These are levels of understanding which are rarely attainable, and which they have reached there. These are very beautiful moments. “The beautiful work” suits me too because that’s not always the case. Sometimes you have pilots who are very, very good but with whom you have difficulty communicating, you have difficulty understanding what they need, and they have difficulty explaining to you what they need, and sometimes struggling to understand what the bike needs to be able to go even faster. And there, all these parameters, we manage to understand them and manage them to be able to ensure that we are as efficient as we are on the track.
And that's also why it makes me all the sadder, to know that at the end of the year we're going to break up this group and this dynamic. I know it, I understand it, I explained it to you: we are the junior team and I support this project. I decided and signed. But it’s clear that we would have loved to transport all of this to KTM so that we could all take on the challenge together! Well, that's how it is, but it's true that day after day, session after session, race after race, everyone in the team has a little bit of this feeling of sadness. It would have been so wonderful to take on this challenge together... The moments we experience are so beautiful that we want to make them last. As Bashung said, “and how long do the sweet moments last!” ". That was beautiful!
But here it is, I understand, I accept it: there is a global challenge from KTM with Johann Zarco and with Tech3, who are each in the factory but in different places. And we will all try to face it together, but it's true that you want to make these moments last, which are moments of grace, and which are rare in life.
Of course, if Johann achieves great results next year, we will be extremely happy for him and for KTM, especially as everyone will contribute their part. But the fact remains when you're not together, it's not the same thing. We won't be there jumping into his arms at the parc ferme, we won't be there applauding him after the race and going to grab a bite to eat in the evening while laughing. Because we will no longer be his team. We will be his team in 2017 and 2018, and we will always remain at his disposal to have exchanges, to give advice and to have technical discussions, and God knows I am sure there will be some, but it will no longer be exactly the same.”
