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MotoGP: Interview with Max Neukirchner
MotoGP: Interview with Max Neukirchner
Interview with Max Neukirchner
After two years of epidemic in the Superbike World Championship, Max Neukirchner is going home – but not to quit, but to build a Saxon Moto2 national team with MZ. MOTORRAD reporter Friedemann Kirn spoke to him.
Friedemann Kirn
11/11/2010
? Max Neukirchner, let’s first take stock of your unfortunate 2010 superbike season on Ten-Kate-Honda: What was the core of the problem??
! First off, I can’t say a bad word about Honda. You have a good motorcycle in the Superbike World Championship. But the chemistry with the team wasn’t so good that I could have cope with it. I made exactly the same statements that I made back then at Klaffi-Honda and also in the Suzuki works team. They understood me, they also saw the problems I have with data recording and were able to implement them. That’s what I’ve been missing this year.
? The season would have gone better with someone who would have catered to you specifically?
! Exactly.
? For months it was in the press that you were talking to the Pramac-Ducati-MotoGP-Team.
! We were very, very close. We all met in Frankfurt. The Pramac bosses were there too, and the contracts were due to be signed that evening. These signatures did not come about. I don’t want to give the details. The funding just didn’t come about.
? As for many riders, is MotoGP the ultimate dream for you?
! Yes, and now more. Despite the failed Ducati contract, this dream has become more realistic and has come closer because I am now getting to know all the tracks that MotoGP is raced on and because I am now in the circus. I do hope that we will fight our way forward little by little and even get the chance to race MotoGP at some point.
? Before it gets that far, there is the Moto2 entry with MZ before. What does it mean for you as a Saxon driver to compete on a Saxon motorcycle?
! It’s a great story for our region. There can be nothing better. Everyone is highly motivated, and we are now also trying to motivate many companies in the area, in Saxony, to support the project. It can really be an extremely good thing to push this forward. But to do this, we need strong partners here and there so that we can develop the motorcycle well and that MZ too can crank up the start of series production, so that motorcycles are produced again. So it is certainly right that someone like me, a Saxon, is involved in the project. I think MZ boss Martin Wimmer can win new partners much better with it. Why I personally chose MZ is definitely the next question: We were looking for a lot of opportunities, and I really would have liked to stick with the superbikes. There were teams there that I could have been with. But they were teams that lacked money. It’s hard when you want to work somewhere and you have to bring the new boss 100,000 to 300,000 euros with you. I think nobody would do that with us so quickly, and we found that difficult. We then looked for alternatives, and that is the Moto2 class, with many chassis manufacturers, Moriwaki, Suter, Kalex, Bimota, and teams, where I would certainly have been able to ride for a fee. But then we would have come back to a team where we don’t know anyone, are not allowed to bring anyone with us and where I would have had to deal with the chassis that is there. Apart from MZ, nobody gave me the opportunity to have a say in who will work on my motorcycle next year. If we use that properly and take advantage of it, we really have the opportunity to build a motorcycle around me. That was a very big incentive for me.
? You have made a contract condition to work with the Italian Marco Nicotari. Who is this? Why is that so important?
! We haven’t worked together for a long time. But we’ve already had conversations here and there about chassis and further development, and I have great confidence in him. This is not a babbler. Martin Wimmer knows that too. He was with him once and can confirm: He has an idea of the chassis, of the development of a motorcycle, and he can really think about it. I need a man like that by my side. We looked at what options he has, and everything is in hand. Whenever I talk to him, I see again and again that I have someone I can trust. I’ve worked with a lot of different mechanics in the past, and I’d be very mistaken if I’d made the wrong decision.
? Is there an example of this competency?
! In the last Superbike race at Magny-Cours, we talked to each other after every practice session and everything he suggested made sense. He told me we had to put the swingarm that Kenny Roberts made back into place. I had already tried it at the beginning and in the middle of the season, but because I wasn’t immediately faster, it immediately expanded the team. This swingarm creates more grip, but also more movement in the chassis, and now in Magny-Cours Marco explained to me how to set the bike up for it. It was a struggle to get this swingarm and the appropriate set-up, but the bike then worked fine and I was over a second faster from one training session to the other. That gave me even more confidence in Marco.
? How will the work be divided up in the future. Maintenance in Italy, further development in Saxony?
! Development will run at MZ, Marco looks after me at the racetrack and then takes the motorcycle home with him. However, new parts will still be made in Zschopau.
? What is your overall impression of the Moto2 class??
! That in Moto2 the only thing that really matters is that the chassis has to be perfect, along with the exhaust and the shape of the fairing. There is no need to pay attention to standard engines, standard tires, standard fuel. It’s about finding the last tenth with the chassis. Of course it’s a mega class. There are 40, sometimes even 42 drivers, and the fighting is really going on. Because everyone has the same amount of horsepower, the power density is extreme, and you need a real bite if you want to get to the front.
? The MZ team has not lacked bite so far, but the technical basis for success. Worry about the overall disappointing results so far?
! When you see the package now, I am absolutely not worried. The bike is at its current limit and you don’t need to be shocked about the results, because it’s just stuck right now, because the team doesn’t have more resources to do better. For next year we can and want to change a lot in order to push the package forward.
? How was your first driving impression with the MZ RE-Honda Moto2?
! The machine is very, very small. At first I really thought I was sitting on a 125cc. When there are short straights, it is difficult to hide behind the fairing again quickly. It was also a shock to have so little performance. You can accelerate extremely early when exiting a corner. You have to drive very, very smoothly. At the moment it is still difficult for me to turn in with the machine. It’s not that bad at the end of the curve.
? You can see with many pilots in the class that they are drifting extremely into the corners. This driving style suits you?
! I would have to acquire it first. I’ve already noticed that if you shift down the gears quickly, the rear wheel comes around immediately. It was unfamiliar to me, but you just notice it better from lap to lap. At some point you are used to it. In the beginning I still had respect. I didn’t want the rear wheel to roll around too hard and throw me off the saddle.
? What can you contribute to speed up the development process at MZ? Test a lot, analyze a lot, visit the factory?
! I would like it best if I could sit on it and go as fast as the first five straight away. Then we hardly need to do anything. But we have to stay on the carpet and realistically assess the situation that, in German, we have to kick our asses. After the test in Valencia and the two subsequent days in Aragon, we have collected a lot of data and will see what we have to do again for the tests that follow. Of course we also want to go into the wind tunnel, we also want to measure everything precisely, recognize how the frame is and what we could change about it. I fully rely on Nicotari, who also brings in many technical sponsors. Like us on the German side: The nice thing is to see how many are motivated to take part. In Germany there are many companies and many technology specialists who are happy about my commitment, who really like me and who want to push the project forward. It would of course be fantastic if a German project made it to the very front.
? In your opinion, how much can be achieved with this project?
! In theory, anything is possible when the whole puzzle is put together. Of course we want, MZ want to be better next season than this year, and I’m sure we can do it. I don’t want to say that we will be world champions next year, but we have to move forward little by little. I really want people to see progress and that we can do well in the first race.
? How important is a strong teammate to drive development? One of the reasons Suter won the brand championship was because of the input from so many different, strong drivers.
! Of course, Suter has a lot more chassis and can therefore make a lot more developments. But sometimes it’s better to stay small and focus on just one or two chassis instead of ten. I guess that also leads to success. But it would be great if Arne Tode could join the team next to me. He’s a good development driver with whom some tasks can be shared, and it would also be very attractive for sponsors in Saxony if a completely Saxon team started.
? With Arne Tode on the team, there would be no dividing wall like there would be between Rossi and Lorenzo?
! We’ve already joked that when we work together we actually need a wall between us – because otherwise we’re just laughing.
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