You won your first EWC crown in 2015 at the start of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ tenure promoting the EWC and your most recent as it celebrated 10 years at the helm. How good was it to celebrate the champions of the last decade at Salon du 2 Roues last month?
“It was great because I start the championship in 2015 and, in the first year, I win the championship with Anthony Delhalle and Vincent Philippe. It was my best memory because it was my first season with SERT, the first with a professional team, so for sure it was a big experience. After we took a second championship in 2016. But then it was difficult because we had a new bike in 2017 and with the [fatal] crash of Anthony at the beginning of 2017 it was a hard season, a hard time. The other teams like Kawasaki, GMT94 and YART were very fast so it’s always nice to share these moments with these teams [like we did at Salon du 2 Roues].”
You’re very much a Suzuki-powered rider now but you spent two seasons riding for different manufacturers. What was that experience like?
“It was a really good experience for me because I just knew SERT before these teams, so to share a completely different experience riding the Ducati and the Kawasaki was very good for me. Not for the results, for sure, but for the experience to manage a different way of working with different people. In 2023 I came back to Suzuki but now with Yoshimura. It was so great to discover the bike with the Bridgestone tyres, a fantastic experience for me and to share this experience with Gregg is always good because we are not only team-mates, we are two friends, maybe two brothers because we have shared a lot of seasons together and we have a lot of confidence together. It’s always good to share the bike with Gregg. We took the Bol d’Or in 2023 and last year was perfect. We win in Le Mans and Bol d’Or, we were fast in all the season, and we didn’t make a lot of mistakes. The team did an incredible job, they did a fantastic bike, maybe the best of my career and maybe the best season of my career because the bike, the team, my team-mates were just perfect. It was great, really great.”
Given what you achieved, which also included finishing second at Spa and riding the Team Suzuki CN Challenge entry at Suzuka, was 2024 the best you’ve ever ridden?
“I think yes and also because we had a new crew chief, Nicolas Reynier. The feeling directly with Nico was perfect, really good. We share a lot of things about the bike, we work a lot with the data. Nico had no experience in endurance, he discovered all, but he discovered fast, really fast. He worked a lot on our feedback and the bike was just perfect. For me, the most important is the feeling on the bike. I felt really, really good on the bike directly after the Pré-Test at Le Mans. I’m not the fastest on just one lap, but I know for the race I’m really good. And if I feel good on the bike, I feel really strong. I can push on the bike and the lap times are not so bad.”
How can you make 2025 even better?
“It will be difficult. We have a lot of opponents who are really strong like YART, TSR and now the BMW with the Bridgestone tyre will be very strong. It will always be difficult to fight with our opponents but our team, in France and Japan, can improve the bike one more time and we can improve our riding. I watch a lot of videos of the races, of our EWC races, but also I watch a lot of MotoGP. I work a lot on it because each year the bike needs an adaptation and we need to adapt with the electronic, with the tyres. It’s a lot of work to know, to be efficient on the bike. We can also improve on our decisions during the race. We can do a better season, but it will be difficult. For sure at Spa YART is very, very fast but we can improve in the short races.”
Do you still have the same motivation and get the same level of enjoyment as you did 10 years ago?
“I think I have higher motivation than 10 years ago. I ride fast during 24 hours. I am more confident on my side. I am sure I can improve. I am 36 so I am older than 10 years ago, but I can improve on myself, my riding style and some decisions I take during the races.”
The 24 Heures Motos forms the opening round of the four-event 2025 EWC season from 17-20 April. Ticket information is available HERE.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]