Dylan Ferrandis is coming into 2021 wishing he had more time on the bike as he enters his rookie 450 season in supercross. The Frenchman, who dominated the 250 class indoors and out in 2020, says his injury in December has cost him valuable testing time as they head to the first three rounds in Houston.
“I have been back on the bike, for the last week I rode four times. It’s okay, I haven’t lost much physically but for sure I lost a lot of time on the bike, a lot of testing days in different conditions but it’s part of the job,” explained the fast Frenchman in the press conference. “I feel good lately on the bike, the team have done quite a good job for me to improve the bike to fit me. We will see, it’s going to be a big challenge to be good in Houston, but the season is long and we will have to take it race by race.”
On moving up to the premier class, Dylan says he has to reset and not think about his 250 success: “It’s a new class, new goal, new everything. I kind of forget the past, all my years on the 250. It’s a new challenge on the 450, I’m just going to try to give my best, it’s kind of a big reset. Just going to be where I wanted to be in the 450 class, with the best guys in the world.”
On coach David Vuillemin, who has helped bring Ferrandis to championship winning level, it is setting up the 450 that Ferrandis feels DV’s experience has brought to the table during this off-season “The biggest help is to have a different eye that someone outside form the team can look at me and the bike. I feel we did a really good job the last two season managing the racing and everything. Moving to the 450 for me i feel the biggest challenge is to set-up the bike. he is obviously really good with that, to see me riding and helping me set-up the bike so basically that’s what we try to work the most on preparing for the season, we wish we had more time to do that but unfortunately I crashed and injured myself. Basically that is what he’s helping the most with right now, of course also on the other side with training and everything.
Ferrandis also dismissed the notion he likes being the bad guy on track, saying he just does his best and sometimes, mistakes happen. “I don’t enjoy being the bad guy if you consider it like this,” he said. “I just do my thing like many riders. un fortunately I have had some racing incidents during my career but i just give my best and sometimes give mistakes. I don’t enjoy being the bad guy or anything especially coming to the 450 where the guys’ are much stronger or faster and some are more aggressive, I definitely don’t want to be the bad guy!
See how Ferrandis is looking just days away from his 450 supercross debut below:
Images: Yamaha
Article: Jonathan McCready