Sylvain Guintoli is no stranger to the FIM Endurance World Championship and being successful as a former champion and race winner. But he’ll enter unchartered territory in 2024 when he forms part of the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team alongside Illya Mykhalchyk and Markus Reiterberger having switched from Yoshimura SERT Motul.
This is what the 41-year-old UK-based Frenchman had to say when he took time out of his preparations for the season-opening 24 Heures Motos.
You’ll be racing for the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team for the first time this season. How is the initiation going?
It’s been interesting. We’ve had quite a few tests now, we’ve encountered all the different conditions so it’s been good. There’s a lot going on with the development of the bike, both projects, the World Superbike test team and the World Endurance project. The bike is strong and we’ve been working hard to get ready for Le Mans.
How difficult is it to make the transition from one bike and team to another bike and team?
You’ve got to get a really good feeling for it and you’ve got to understand the tyres because they’re different also. So it takes a bit of time for it to really sink in and for things to become automatic. Obviously different bikes have different strengths and different weaknesses so you’ve got to try to understand where the bike stands with this. There are different characteristics as well and you’ve got to ride them in a different way, so you’ve got to try to adapt as quick as possible.
Given your dual role as a BMW test rider in World Superbike and a racer in the EWC, it must be an exciting challenge?
It’s really interesting because we’ve got two sides to it, we’ve got the World Superbike side, the testing where there is a lot going on to try to give the tools to the guys to win races, which they have already, which is great! Then we’ve got the World Endurance side where there are a lot of parallels, a lot of similarities with the bikes but a different rule book and obviously the bikes have to be adapted for endurance racing so it’s very interesting to work on both projects that in the end are not far away from each other. It’s good to still be able to [race] and it’s important as well to keep sharp and to keep that competitive side. It’s great to be able to do the racing in EWC and try to bring some victories and the titles to BMW.
You’ve won the 24 Heures Motos twice, how confident are you that you can achieve a third victory so early in your BMW career?
That’s the idea, that’s what we want to do but it’s going to be tough. So far over the history of the race no European manufacturer has ever won it so it would be great to be the first one with BMW. My new team-mates are great guys and we’re getting on well straight away. They’ve got a lot of experience with the bike so it’s good to be alongside them. It’s good for learning the bike as well because they already have a lot of knowledge about the package and they definitely know how to ride a bike because they’re super-quick. We’re a strong team and the idea is to be able to fight for race victories all year long.
It's not the longest track on the EWC calendar but it’s not easy either, how difficult is Circuit Bugatti to master?
It’s difficult, there’s a lot going on with the power management as well and the engine brake because it’s very much a stop and go track so we’ve got to adapt to that. The BMW is very fast, the engine is super-quick so we’re trying to make it as rider friendly as possible for 24 hours. The Pre-Test was a great opportunity for us to dial everything in. The [changing] weather meant it was tough because you’ve got to adapt and you’ve got to try the different tyres, the different configurations with a fully wet track, drying track and the slicks as well with different temperatures because the temperature affects a lot the tyre grip and the longevity. So actually it was quite good we had this kind of weather because it was giving us a bit of an understanding of what to do if we encounter the same conditions in the race.
The 47th edition of the 24 Heures Motos opens the 2024 FIM Endurance World Championship season from 18-21 April. Ticket information is available HERE.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
