Taking advantage of the winter break for MotoGP riders and a little less extensive sporting news, we offer you a gallery of the main French-speaking personalities of the paddock who, each, represents one of the countless cogs essential to the sumptuous spectacle that is the Grands Prix.
We often hear about the Spanish armada or the Italian troops, but you will discover that the French-speaking colony, rather numerous and very united, has no reason to be ashamed of the comparison.
In the light or more in the shadows, verbose or more discreet, each of these men shared with us with pleasure their world and their news, always with the same passion as a common denominator.
Little by little, you will be able to know a little better who are, and what is going on today, for example Claude Michy, Piero Taramasso, Hervé Poncharal, Eric Mahe, Nicolas Goubert, Bernard Ansiau, Guy Coulon, Christophe Bourguignon, Florian Ferracci, Christophe Léonce, Marc van der Straten, Miodrag Kotur, Alain Bronec, Jacques Hutteau, Michel Turco, David Dumain, Michaël Rivoire, and many others.
This long series of interviews will first be broadcast on the official MotoGP.com website in a refined version, before being accessible here in their raw version.
So, when the MotoGP Grands Prix resume, you will be almost unbeatable on the French-speaking part of a particularly cosmopolitan paddock...
What is your year of birth?
" nineteen eighty one ".
How did the young Jacques Roca develop a passion for motor sports?
“It’s thanks to my father who worked for 25 years as technical director at Suzuki France, when Mr. Bonnet was in charge, before the Japanese arrived. He was also a tester of the new models and went to Japan for this, to the Suzuki track where I was able to go later. Then he had Suzuki dealerships for quite a few years, and as the famous GT 750 was not selling very well at Suzuki France, he modified it and it was a great success. From there, the name Roca began to be heard a little by the general public. »
“Obviously, I grew up in my father's motorcycle shops. I never saw him race because when I was born, he had already stopped, but I have very good memories of the time when he took me to motorcycle shows to work at Suzuki France. My mother dressed me in little costumes when I was 5 years old. I would wander around the salons left and right, and I was immersed in this world from a very young age. »
What are the main points of your career?
“I obviously don't remember it, but when I was born, my father told my mother at the hospital that he had brought me a present. It was a Pocket bike brought from Japan! The day I was born, I already had a pocket bike (laughs). I actually have photos where I'm in them when I'm still a baby. When I was 3 years old, he put wheels on it and blocked the accelerator so I wouldn't turn around. So I started on a motorcycle very early. Then, when I was 5 or 6 years old, we went to the circuits on Sundays and my father took care of his customers' motorcycles. I had a PW 50 and I walked around the paddock all day. I asked the drivers for gas and didn't stop driving all day. »
“At the time, there were PW 50 races, but as my father was busy at the store on Saturday, the big day, he couldn't take me there. I remember that a customer driver of my father took me to the Carole circuit where I did my first laps on a track, with my PW equipped with scooter tires. I was overtaken everywhere by real fighter planes. In the evening, we returned to the store in Issy-les-Moulineaux: I went down to the workshop and threw the PW on the ground saying “with that, I get overtaken by everyone“. Then I left. But after his day's work, my father put the PW on the workbench and started dismantling the ignition, the carburetor, opening the pot, tapping the cylinder transfers and filing the cylinder head...”
“But I remember it like it was today: I told her to stop because I was sure she would go too fast and I wouldn't be able to drive her, and I went back up the store crying. Around 10 p.m. he called me and we went out into the street to try the PW. It made a hell of a racket and I had tears in my eyes, but I was happy: it was a fighter plane! »
“The following Sunday, I found myself with around thirty PW and a guy with a flag who started to bend his fingers: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… but no one had explained anything to me and so I left last . With my fighter plane, I finished 5th, and from there, I continued, but without necessarily thinking about what happened next. »
“So there were PW 50 races, on dirt track, then the PW 80. I started to win quite a bit, but as my results at school weren't great, maybe around 10 , 11 or 12 years old, my mother told my father that she preferred it all to stop. They sold me that I didn't have good grades, so it was over. »
“I had training, but much later. In the stores, I trained on the job, then I had my teenage period where you also want to see a little something else. Then we went to live in Spain. I had cross bikes, but I damaged the cruciate ligaments in both knees and had to stop. I then got back on the track by doing a scooter championship with a machine completely prepared by my father and me. But always with a leisure perspective. He was really behind me, and all the work that came from my comments later helped me understand what happens on a 2 wheel. I continued to prepare the motorcycles, for example for the 24 hours of Barcelona, but I also inquired at the Monlau competition school. I applied and was selected, without the slightest support from my father because I didn't want to. I wanted to arrive by myself. »
“During the 2nd year, you were supposed to do practical training with their competition team under the responsibility of one of their former students. But that year, they were missing someone and they called me because I was more advanced than the others thanks to the experience acquired with my father. As a result, I found myself responsible for the bike that was racing in the Spanish championship throughout the year. So in the morning I prepared the bike, and in the afternoon I went to take my lessons with the mechanics of my team. I was 21 years old. Then, the director of the school, who was Dani Amatriain, Jorge Lorenzo's manager when he was on the Derbi 125, offered me a place at Derbi with Olivier Liégeois. As the latter was Belgian, I spoke French and Dani Amatriain supported me, it stuck. So I started working with Lorenzo in 2004, as a mechanic's assistant in the world championship. At that time, we were allowed 2 motorcycles per pilot, the second being a bit of a spare motorcycle. I was rushing to do my job on the first bike and then going to work on the 2nd. So I took care of the tires, I cleaned the radiator or cleaned the exhaust on the first, to go do things that interested me more on the second, such as changing a piston. The mechanics immediately saw that I liked it and they let me do it. »
“In 2004, Gigi Dall'Igna arrived and, in the end, he replaced Olivier Liégeois. He was the big boss. At the end of the year, Dani Amatriain put Lorenzo in his 250cc team and the mechanics went everywhere. As a result, the team fell apart and I had an interview with Gigi. He asked me what I was going to do the following season and I told him that I had been offered a place as a mechanic's assistant in the Lotus team in 250. He then told me: “know that this is just a team. This is a factory. There, you don't know the future, but here, you will have work for many years. » I, very young and pretentious, told him that I wanted to be a mechanic, and more of a mechanic's helper. He accepted without problem. »
“So in 2005, I worked as a mechanic for Pablo Nieto, and as I was the only one on the team to stay, I was the only one who knew how we worked on the Derbi (editor's note: the Aprilias were different) or how we loaded the truck. So, in one year, I had a lot of responsibilities. At the end of the year, the Derbi team released the RSA with a central rotary valve, with Jan Thiel and Gigi Dall'Igna, and we did the last race in Valencia with it. My father, who was still alive, was proud that I got there without his help…”
“In 2006, as the Piaggio group had bought Aprilia and Derbi, and I was originally a Derbi mechanic, Gigi moved me around as he wanted in the various official teams of the Piaggio group. There I was at Gilera with Rossano Brazzi as technical director and Simone Corsi as driver. But as he was coming down from the 250 and wasn't really in the race, we were treated to a simple RSV. I learned to work on it. »
“In 2007, I was with Nico Terol and a Derbi which was in fact just an Aprilia RSV. »
“In 2008, it was the first time I worked with Aleix Espargaró, in 250cc. I knew him in the 125cc Spanish championship and, at the time, he was a little kid who did stupid things every 4 mornings. The 250 was really a great machine: you changed your piston every day, you changed your crankshaft every 2 races. It was real mechanics and you finished late at night. Today, with the 4-stroke, it's different and much easier. This year was also important for the future, in terms of my bond with Aleix. That's when I really started to understand how it worked. »
“In 2009, I moved back to 125cc with Efrén Vázquez on a Derbi RSA and I continued in 2010 with Pol Espargaró. It was a great year because we fought with Marc Márquez for the championship. »
“In 2011, I returned as first mechanic with Aleix Espargaró who rode for Pons Racing in Moto2. We didn't do much because the level was quite high and came from a difficult year with stints in MotoGP at Pramac but also periods without riding since the Amatriain team had closed at the last minute. »
“In 2012, he asked me to go with him to Aspar but the project was quite vague. As I was no longer under contract with Derbi, I preferred to stay at Pons with Pol Espargaró. »
“In 2012, we continued to fight with Marc Márquez and we won the Moto2 world championship in 2013.”
“As usual, Aleix was still in the box and asked me to go with him next year because he had a very good project. »
“He explained it to me and therefore took me with him to MotoGP at Forward with the Yamaha Open in 2014. We had great results despite the cycle part which was a patchwork. We spent our days filing or cutting. You had to be a real mechanic because despite all that, we didn't have any breakdowns. »
“But it was only an entry point into MotoGP, because in 2013 he decided to go to Suzuki. He promised to take me with him and he did. At Suzuki! Which was the brand I had been immersed in since my childhood! »
“When I had my interview with Suzuki, it was very emotional…”
“I started with the Test team. There were only 2 mechanics with Tom O'Kane, plus a Japanese mechanic. We had good results, just like Maverick Viñales who progressed very well. The following year, we struggled a bit with the Michelin casings. We ended up finding adjustments but they didn't keep Aleix because the contracts were signed at the start of the year, when he was struggling. On the other hand, Aleix was very correct because when he signed with Aprilia, he took me aside and explained to me that he was not asking me to follow him, since he considered Suzuki to be a better team than Aprilia. He didn't want to be selfish and thought of me first. I really thanked him because it’s thanks to him if I’m in MotoGP today. »
“In 2017, I was made official chief mechanic for the arrival of Andrea Iannone because, in practice, it was already me who organized a lot of things. Maybe age also played a role, because I was the youngest and most dynamic. »
“In 2018, with Viñales, Suzuki managed to achieve very good results. Then we found ourselves with two riders who didn't know the bike, including a rookie and Iannone who came from a completely different bike. We started to get lost, and we got lost, either with things he told us, or with things we thought. The responsibility was shared, and in the meantime Rins was hurt and the Test Team was also lost. We all went in the wrong direction and had difficulty getting back on the right line. At the end of 2017, we started to get good results again, Top 5s. And in 2018, with all the experience of what not to do, we managed to make a motorcycle that works. It lacked a little top speed but it was manageable, and for their part, the drivers began to understand it well. »
Throughout this journey, what were the most difficult moments?
“Sportingly, the most difficult moments come when you don't have a very competitive driver and the results don't come. For us, whether the driver is competitive or not, our work does not change, but the atmosphere is not the same whether our driver is on the podium or at the bottom of the ranking. »
“Professionally, there are also sometimes years when there is not a good atmosphere in the team you are in. This happened to me at the time when I was under official contract with Derbi and they placed me in one team or another. Sometimes it was good, sometimes not so…”
“Afterwards, humanly, the year 2007 remains the most difficult since I lost my father and it is really thanks to him that I do this job. He was super proud and proud of my work, so it was a very difficult year. »
Conversely, were there any particularly strong moments that brought tears of joy to your eyes?
“Yes, there were quite a few! When you manage to achieve good results, it's always a great emotion, like in 2013 with Pol Espargaró's world champion title. It was difficult because the competition was close. Everything was decided during the extra-European tour, and when we were declared world champion in Japan, it really remains a good memory. »
“Just like in 2014 with Aleix Espargaró at the Forward Open: we came second in Aragon in the rain with a flag to flag! It was a lot of tension because the conditions were terrible and you had to be ready with the second bike. In the end, we came second with a bike that we had more or less built ourselves, and I remember that I had tears in my eyes in the parc ferme when the nervous tension subsided. »
Can you take stock of this 2019 season?
“Above all, I’m really happy to work with Suzuki! I have been with them since 2015 and everything is going very well. I worked my way to becoming official chief mechanic and I now work with Joan Mir. It was very interesting because he arrived as a young rookie: everything was new for him and seeing his eyes shine was really rewarding. Gradually, he had to be taught what he could do, what he couldn't do, what he could complain about, what he couldn't complain about, etc. In short, make it grow. And when you manage to develop a Rookie and it pays off, as it did in 2019, it's really satisfying. Joan did better than expected, even if he got hurt a little along the way. This slowed us down a little but the results remain very positive. »
What are the prospects for 2020?
“The work we did in 2019 and during the first winter tests of the 2020 season allows us to believe that we will reap the rewards. We've just done the first tests and the bike looks competitive and our rider looks good. Afterwards, it is difficult to set a precise objective because the championship is increasingly tight and the other factories have also progressed. It will be difficult, but my dream would be that our bike could fight for the Top 5 in almost every race, which would occasionally allow us to aim for the podium. »
What is your daily means of transportation?
“Paradoxically, I have a few motorbikes but I spend more time moving them with my van. To stay with Suzuki, I have an RGV 250 and a GSX-R 1100 as well as an old model that I am rebuilding. »
In the same series, find the exclusive interviews withHervé Poncharal, Claude Michy, Piero Taramasso, Christophe Bourguignon, Eric Mahé, Marc van der Straten, Nicolas Goubert, Guy Coulon et Christophe Leonce.
