24 Heures Motos – SERT will not compete in the 2009 Endurance World Championship … – Interview with Dominique Meliand, team manager of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT)

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SERT will not compete in the 2009 Endurance World Championship…

24 Heures Motos - SERT will not compete in the 2009 Endurance World Championship ... - Interview with Dominique Meliand, team manager of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT)

Budget restrictions oblige, Dominique Meliand and his SERT men could stay on the edge of the track in 2009… An incredible setback on which the most successful man in World Endurance returns: interview and overview.

Interview with Dominique Meliand, Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) team manager

Meeting in Geneva to set the 2009 calendar and define certain modifications to the regulations (read), the organizers of the championship and the FIM were surprised to welcome a dark-looking Dominique Meliand: after consultation with Suzuki, the conductor of the reigning world champion team told them that SERT would not participate in the 2009 world endurance championship…

If the delicate context could legitimately lead manufacturers lacking results in certain categories to reduce budgets for 2009, nobody imagined that with four consecutive titles in Endurance, Suzuki would thus pass the hand, reducing the SERT to a "cell of standby "while waiting for better days. Dominique Meliand, the benchmark of world endurance, is currently fighting to try to field only one motorcycle at Le Mans and at the Bol d’Or. Disappointed but not dejected – the "Old Man" has seen others! – he agreed to confide in Site. Interview.

Site: Suzuki would significantly reduce its sports expenses for 2009. What are the consequences for the SERT ?
Dominique Meliand : The consequences are quite simple, although painful: today, the SERT does not have a sports program for 2009 due to lack of financial resources! It is for this reason that we went to see the organizers and the FIM to tell them that SERT will not be competing in the Endurance World Cup next season….

M.-N.C. : Is this the end of 28 years of collaboration with Suzuki, with nine Endurance titles at stake? ?
D. M. : No, it is not Suzuki’s will. What you have to understand is that Suzuki wants to continue in Endurance and that the Japanese are not really happy to have to put the brakes on our excellent results. But the economic context, this crisis which made the headlines and which made all the mistakes of certain financiers endure, forced Suzuki to cut funding for 2009 … The funniest thing, if I may say so, is that Suzuki announces a return to normal in 2010, which demonstrates the importance of this famous "crisis"…

M.-N.C. : How did the organizers react when you told them that SERT was not entering the 2009 World Endurance Championship? ?
D. M. : This generated a blank in the discussion, without a doubt! Especially since the FIM was in talks to broadcast the entire endurance season on Eurosport! But with the withdrawal of Suzuki, the Honda program that is rumored to be less ambitious than expected, just like that of Kawasaki, the 2009 endurance could not line up official teams … Needless to say that in this case, the interest in the discipline would necessarily be affected. But after all, it’s also up to the organizers and players in the category to take charge in this difficult period to maintain endurance at its proper level. I admit that this withdrawal after so many years of defending endurance will allow me to gauge the reactions of the field: if everyone tries to pull the cover to themselves, the situation will only get worse. Now it’s up to others to play their cards at all levels and value our sport…

M.-N.C. : Is it possible to see the SERT run with a brand other than Suzuki? ?
D. M. : Absolutely not ! Whatever it is decided by the end of the year, we keep the confidence of Suzuki who wants anyway that we keep a "watch cell" while waiting to come back in 2010. The team would not be dismantled and I am currently fighting to try to have the necessary budget to run a motorcycle at Le Mans and the Bol d’Or.

M.-N.C. : What is the budget for a team like yours for a full season? Have not the necessary means become too high ?
D. M. : Obviously, an endurance budget is substantial: we ride a lot, there are two motorcycles, seven riders, significant logistics, which represents a turnkey sum of 1.5 million euros per season. However, our budget is not criticized by Suzuki, especially as the results are there. But it’s true that budgets are soaring and this year, too, Suzuki is releasing a new GSX-R 1000! This means a long and expensive additional development, the machining of new parts, etc. In short, even greater investments…

M.-N.C. : In this case, have you considered registering with the GSX-R K7 on which you won the title this season? ?
D. M. : Honestly yes, because the Suzuki 2007/2008 is an excellent machine and we have all the parts in stock, as well as the experience of the bike. But that turns out to be commercially impossible. Or we become a private team, which no longer interests me today. Somewhere we fall from above and we can equate it with the price of our glory…

M.-N.C. : What happens to your pilots ?
D. M. : Matthieu Lagrive is anyway at Honda in Supersport Mondial, so it was planned that he no longer defends the colors of the SERT. The same goes for Julien da Costa who started on an English Superbike on a Kawasaki. There remains Vincent Philippe and Guillaume Diectrich, whom I will try to run at Le Mans and Le Bol and who, in the meantime, will have to find solutions on their side….

M.-N.C. : Thank you for agreeing to answer us in these difficult times and good luck !
D. M. : You know, the world will continue to run without the SERT! However, we continue to fight as we always have and I have not yet cut my last cards…

Interview by Alexandre BARDIN

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