KRT team manager, Antti Pyrhönen was a happy man after the Belgian MXGP round held in Lommel. Known as the toughest GP on the calendar, Romain Febvre only had three weeks back on the bike but did enough to get back on the box – impressive!
We might not have seen the ‘real’ Jeremy Seewer this season but he still sits fifth in the overall championship and getting in that top five is never easy in MXGP.
We caught up with Pyrhönen to discuss a range of topics which you can read, watch or listen to below…
GateDrop: The toughest GP of the year, obviously not ideal for Romain, only having one GP under his belt to come here, so to get on the box at the toughest GP of the year underprepared is a bonus… I’m sure you’re very happy.
Pyrhönen: Yeah… Absolutely, so it’s like a win for us to be honest, like only the second GP back for Romain after missing five GP’s and almost two months out, so an incredible performance and really happy for him as well because the first seven races he was of course battling for the title and that’s a big big motivator… Then to lose that opportunity, you know it’s difficult to regroup and get going again and motivation but it’s visible that he did his work even during these two months with the injury you know and proof of that was definitely to be on the box here and really happy for him and happy for the team. Normally even technically it’s a tough race to manage 450cc and really proud for the team as well and the mechanics, the guys did a really good job and worked hard all weekend and luckily it paid off.
GateDrop: Just before his return in Loket, how many weeks did he actually have back on the bike?
Pyrhönen: Less than two weeks.
GateDrop: So, I mean only three weeks to come back to Lammel, not easy around there…
Pyrhönen: No… incredible, I think Romain is the only one who can do it.
GateDrop: I agree to be honest, I mean watching him you can see how much fight he has and how much he wants it because even at the end of the second moto there it would have been easy just to ride around but he kept charging probably because he knows it’s good for the race rhythm to get back into the swing of things…
Pyrhönen: Yeah, yeah absolutely… So no, it shows the pro he is and the level he has and yeah we try to make still many podiums this season and to take what we can.
GateDrop: On Jeremy Seewer, not a good Saturday but the starts were good on Sunday, he put himself into better positions so you must be happy with the progress he showed from Saturday to Sunday?
Pyrhönen: Yeah, yeah absolutely and also Jeremy ended the weekend with a high note so P5 second moto with the good riding so it was really nice and happy for him as well. You know it’s been a tough weekend and Lommel is not his favourite track and to finish P5 after these guys you know who’s in front of him so it was really a good race.
GateDrop: What’s it been like working with Jeremy, obviously Romain he’s a guy you know well, you’ve been working with him a few years but everything’s all new and it’s a new team, and a new brand for Jeremy as well as a new team manager, what’s it been like working with him?
Pyrhönen: It’s been great so of course everybody knows Jeremy is a super super nice guy and great to work with and you know nothing to say. We hope it or let’s say he hopes for it of course even better results to be more often on a podium but to be honest I knew that it’s not going to be that easy to adapt to another bike after being so so many years on another one so really like it’s a building up process and I more or less knew what was ahead of us. But nevertheless you know he’s been doing quite a few good races and some a bit worse ones but overall he’s still I think P5 on the point so let’s try to climb up still at least the position and then then it would not be that bad.
GateDrop: It was announced earlier in the year that next year you’re going to have a third rider but an MX2 GP rider, exciting… but it’s going to make it even busier but knowing you, the way I know you, I’m sure you’re looking forward to that…
Pyrhönen: Yeah, absolutely. So Yeah, we will run a factory MX2 team as well in 2025 with one rider and I am really excited for that and excited to work again with the young talents and really looking forward to that. Especially for that programme because we like to keep pushing hard, you know and try to get Kawasaki also some podiums and some exposure on that class as well. This is the way we are in competition as well for the future talents so to create type of pyramid as well for the Kawasaki structure that we can get our hands on the talent as well early enough.
GateDrop: I think the plan is to have one MX2 GP rider next year but then in 2026 if all goes according to plan you’ll have two MXGP and then two MX2 riders?
Pyrhönen: Yeah, indeed. Indeed so that’s the goal and like I mentioned, you know we need to be in hunt for the talent early enough to engage them for the MX2 class and make them successful on that one and even suddenly hopefully they become our future MXGP stars as well.
GateDrop: Just on next year it sounds like Romain is going to stay with the team, Jeremy might not stay, what can you say about that?
Pyrhönen: Quite simple… you know we’re going to make the rider announcements within some weeks so we just need to wait for the official announcements.
