A START TO THE SEASON WITH INJURY AND UNCERTAINTY
The start of the season for Toni Bou was very committed. The broken fibula a little less than a month before the first Grand Prix put his presence in Tolmezzo in doubt.
"It was a big scare, and when I was in the operating room they saw that I had an additional injury to my ankle that I was carrying from Reunion Island. Maybe I could have gotten on the bike a little earlier, but Honda, after what Marc did in MotoGP, didn't want any scares. Maybe I arrived a little bit in Italy, but in France I already had a very good feeling."
THE INTENSITY OF THE CALENDAR. A KEY POINT IN THE SEASON
The pandemic has forced the calendars to be restructured, making it, as in 2020, very intense in terms of the calendar, with races very close to each other and some of them double-headers.
In terms of results, Toni won all the races, except for two races that coincided with the second day of GPs held over two days. In those cases it was Fujinami and Raga who climbed to the top of the podium.
"I don't think any driver likes this. There's risk in double races, where you don't have any margin to recover if you have a mistake, or even a positive one, that can ruin the season. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal in terms of travel, that there are no GP cancellations and that we have more room for recovery. On the first day of the race, more points are always discussed: new areas, new controls that you don't know how they are going to mark you with these non-stop regulations... Then, on Sunday, everything usually changes, as everything is more studied and the controls tend to be more permissive. Now we just need to go backwards... since we stopped a lot in the area. All this squeezes the results on the second day and it is more difficult to win."
NEW SOLUTIONS TO THE NONSTOP REGULATION
At the Portuguese GP a truck with FIM directives could be seen, which invited us to think that perhaps they would talk about the future of the regulations or the implementation of new solutions that improve the understanding of the competition. There are many riders who have criticised the non-stop regulations for their difficulty in measuring zone scores.
"I don't think any driver likes this. There's risk in double races, where you don't have any margin to recover if you have a mistake, or even a positive one, that can ruin the season. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal in terms of travel, that there are no GP cancellations and that we have more room for recovery. On the first day of the race, more points are always discussed: new areas, new controls that you don't know how they are going to mark you with these non-stop regulations... Then, on Sunday, everything usually changes, as everything is more studied and the controls tend to be more permissive. Now we just need to go backwards... since we stopped a lot in the area. All this squeezes the results on the second day and it is more difficult to win."
"As long as Michaud is at the front, we find it very difficult for the nonstop to be in force, so at least we ask him for the existence of this machine, allowing the control to only focus on counting the penalties and the driver's line. If this machine does not work, we ask you to go back to the stop regulation. At our level the margin of error changes a lot depending on whether a driver can stop for a second or so."
NEW EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICIAL MONTESA COTA 4RT
When asked about the level of his Montesa 4T compared to its rivals, taking into account the most evident evolution of the rest of the brands, he confessed that they are working with a new bike this season.
"Fujinami has been working this year with a new bike, with a little more displacement and other modifications. I was testing on that bike until I got injured. The fact is that it suits his riding more than mine, with a different clutch and a different behavior of the bike. I decided to go back and take my bike from the previous year's season, motivated more by the injury, the short time to adapt and, if I have to lose, I prefer to do it with the bike I know and it suits my riding better. We're going to keep working. A 2T is faster to evolve. In Japan they have a different work philosophy and when the news arrives, they come more suddenly, not so progressively. I'm confident that the next teammate can help us at this point."
MARCELLI, THE PREFERENCE TO BE A TEAMMATE
Fujinami delayed his decision until the Spanish GP, a week before the end of the World Championship. We also spoke to him about Busto, a former teammate and one of Toni’s main rivals heading into 2022. Finally, we asked him about Matteo Grattarola, one of this season’s breakout riders.
