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There is a lot of Italian in Joan Mir’s Moto3 leadership. In fact, the up-and-coming Spaniard races for an Italian-Luxembourg team, Leopard, and the mechanics are all Italian, starting from Cristian Lundberg, but don’t let the surname fool you, because true Roman blood flows through his veins.
The crew chief has a 5-star CV and in his career, Lundberg has worked alongside riders of the calibre of Viñales, Redding, Bautista, Rabat and Perugini, not to mention Kent, with whom he won the world championship two years ago.
Christian, what is your assessment of the first part of this season?
“The first five rounds of the 2017 season have already passed, the championship is at a high level of competitiveness, in every race there are 10 candidates to win.”
You are back with Honda. Was that the right choice?
“At this start of the season, KTM has not yet been able to make the most of its potential; Honda has done a great job.”
Mir has won 3 races out of 5, the most recent one in France…
“The Le Mans race was a little abnormal, with Mir and Fenati having something more. Joan impressed a great deal by forcing Romano, who might not have expected that recovery and pushed too much. On the other hand, we must remain competitive race by race, pushing and trying to bring home the maximum possible result, without making mistakes that would make us lose valuable points.”
Loi, on the other hand, is struggling...
“We hope we can also help Livio [Loi] because after a series of falls in Jerez, he lost a bit of confidence. We are trying to balance the bike according to his needs, but it's not that simple. His small stature means less weight on the bike, penalizing other areas of motion, such as braking stability.”
The Italian GP is coming up. Who concerns you?
“At Mugello there are the Italian riders who want to win: starting with the Sky VR46 team, who are approaching and developing their bike well; surely they will be the battle of Di Giannantonio and Martin; so many other riders will give us a twist, but Fenati is the number one opponent: the important thing is to try to stay stuck for as long as possible, especially if he tries to run away. Last year he had almost succeeded in his intent, when he was then stopped by the inconvenience to the chain.”
What is the goal for this weekend?
“For us the podium at Mugello would be a great achievement, regardless we will be waiting for Montmelò to try and win. We are happy with the start of this season, winning 3 races in 5 and making a podium is an important achievement. Without Joan's problem in Race 2 in Austin, we could safely have been up on to the podium. We know things will not always be the best, on the weekend when we're on the ball we have to try to take the most points possible and keep the advantage over our opponents.”
It seems simple when you put it that way…
“But we cannot and should not fall asleep. We remember the 2015 world title, when at the end of 6 races we had over 100 points of advantage, and yet we suffered to Valencia. I think Joan's mind is completely different from that of Kent, who at some point of the season thought too much of the situation. Today, our philosophy is to get the best possible result in every Grand Prix without ever being content.”
