After a long interview withHervé Poncharal, president of IRTA, which we will broadcast soon, we were able to interview Hervé Poncharal, Team Owner of the GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 MotoGP team, on the evening of the official test in Valencia.
Obviously, the topic of the day was the debut in the premier category of the 2 Moto2023 world champion, Peter Acosta, which will race next year under the red colors of the GASGAS branch of the Pierer Mobility Group. And there, while the boss of Tech3 was speaking, a nickname came to mind…
Hervé Poncharal, the first laps of a rookie in MotoGP in Valencia, it's not new to you, but why can we already call this one Sponge Bob?
Hervé Poncharal :
“(Laughs) yes, we are becoming a little bit customary because, in 2022, we had 2 rookies coming out of Moto2, a champion and a vice-world champion. In 2023, we also had a rookie who was world champion and in 2024 we still have a rookie who is world champion. But it's clear, without disrespect to the others who are all super drivers and who prove it, Pedro Acosta is a customer, according to Marc Marquez, according to Pedrosa, according to by Jorge Lorenzo, according to Jorge Martin, etc… He is a very special client, very special. We followed his journey, and I remember seeing him in the Rookies Cup, and when I saw him take off his helmet, I saw this chicken head coming out of the egg. We were laughing because he really has a funny, friendly face, and since then the whole paddock has followed him and he has had a meteoric progression: he won the Rookies Cup, he was world champion for his rookie year in Moto3 , he was a Moto2 rookie and the following year he was Moto2 world champion. So in 3 years, he has 2 world titles, in 4 years, he has 4 titles, and he is 19 years old and he arrives in MotoGP. He beats Marc Marquez's precocity records, so yes, we have a phenomenon happening, and we are super happy! Plus his dad is a fisherman, they are people who are super modest, super simple, but for me it's a quality to be simple and modest. I adore ! And he has kept this modest side, this down-to-earth side, and even though he is 19 years old and life has smiled on him for the moment, he has not at all taken what we could call the melon at our house, he's always dressed in team clothes, he's not at all the bling-bling guy who arrives with crazy cars or sparkling fiancés.
And There you go. At the time of doing this interview, it's the end of the first day of 2024 testing, and he's performing well: he's just over a second off the best time and he hasn't made any mistakes. So why SpongeBob? Because of the first words of his chief mechanic (Paul Trevathan) at the mid-day break of his first day on MotoGP. I said to him “what do you have to tell me?” ". He tells me he's a sponge, that everything we say to him, he sucks it up and each subsequent run we see that what he sucked up, he puts into practice on the track. And honestly, we're not going to fall into bliss either, each association when it starts, it always goes well, then afterwards there can be hitches, eh? When you get married, it's for life, and then sometimes, before the end of your life, you divorce, you separate... So I'm in a pretty good position to know that we'll see how things evolve. A season is hard, there are moments of tension, there are moments of pressure, there are moments when you feel bad. So it's up to us to create a group around him, but I feel someone special, frankly, I feel someone who is really a good person, someone intelligent who has his feet on the ground, who wants to arrive and who takes the right method to get there, from what I can see today, eh?
So it's only the first day, but I'm very proud and happy to have him on our team, and it's up to us to make sure we build this cocoon, because 19 years old, OK, he's a 2-time world champion. world, but he's still a teenager, he's still a little bit like a child. And I love, I love young people. Drivers have always fascinated me, they are our heroes, our gladiators, and to have someone like Pedro, well I want to give him everything he has the right to expect for his progress, I I want to make him happy, and above all I want to make my team happy, because it's important. We talked about 22 races, 44 starts in MotoGP, and if it's done with a smile, even when tired, it's really nice! I want to recreate a group, because there were times, it was a little complicated, we were sometimes not completely helped, there were changes in the personnel and everything, but here I think that We are in the process of recreating Tech3 as the group was a few years ago, in Moto3 and in MotoGP for that matter. That's my goal, in any case to give our drivers what they expect to be able to perform. Afterwards, it's up to them to perform eh, but at least for me, everything that is upstream of the moment when the fire goes out, I give it the maximum, and give to my whole team, which does roughly 50 people, give to each of them, the maximum that I can give them so that they are well, that they get along well, put the right people together and give them on the material level something to live properly, to make sure they are happy. Let everyone be “A happy man”, as William Sheller said, happy men. And God knows if it's complicated, if there can be tensions when there are 22 races, when there are 44 starts, when there are sometimes trips where the mechanics have not returned home for 2 months ! So when we live together for 2 months, 30 days a month, almost 24 hours a day, because they often share rooms together, it's important that things go well and that's my main role. »
