Benoit Paturel travelled to the Paris Supercross to watch some of the best SX riders in the world with the likes of the Lawrences, Webb, Ferrandis, Stewart and more in action. We caught up with the French talent to discuss his future and more – he is still looking a ride for the 2025 season with his career uncertain at the moment… You can watch, read or listen below…
GateDrop: Benoit, just talk me through your MXGP World Championship season, how do you feel like you performed this year?
Paturel: Yeah, I think my season went not so bad because I had no preparation because last season and this season the team stopped with me. So I had four months without no bike and then you need to get back to good shape but it was not easy when you race every weekend to get fit and try to recover. But I think when I had no issue with the bike and everything, when it fits I make some good results, some good top ten.
GateDrop: Just on the winter, just how difficult was that because you never even had a team to start with, were you still training, you probably weren’t riding, just what was the winter like?
Paturel: Yeah, now at this moment it’s really not easy, I’m in a little bit the same situation like last winter, so I had no bike, no team, I just keep training physically to stay fit. It’s really hard to keep fighting but I don’t want to stop now so I hope one good opportunity will come in MXGP or in the US.
GateDrop: Just on the start of this season, just how difficult was the start of the season because like you say you never had a winter, you were only training physically and was that tough for the confidence?
Paturel: Yeah exactly, it was really tough because I know I had the level to do top ten results and last year was a good season, we fight all year for this. But every weekend was better and better so after three or four GP’s I got a good level and when everything was good I make good results. In MXGP you need all the setup to make it good.
GateDrop: You’ve had a privateer setup for the last two years, just how difficult is that in MXGP to fight against the factory bikes, they’ve got millions of budget?
Paturel: Yeah exactly, it’s a massive gap, especially as my bike was completely standard, only one bike, one ECU so you need to fight against so many millions, electronic data, many mechanics now, we struggle a lot. But the team gave me my chance for 2 years so I cannot blame them. It’s sad to stop like this and I hope I can improve my career in a good way.
GateDrop: Just on the sand GP’s this year, I think it was better, you were sort of battling for top then, that’s not easy to do in MXGP and sand is maybe your weak area so you must have been happy with the sand results this year?
Paturel: Yeah, I live in Belgium. I ride many years on the sand so I think I’m not so bad in the sand and like you say for a French guy who rides always hard pack it’s good. I was happy on the sand.
GateDrop: Just on next year, how likely is it, do you think that you’re going to be in the MXGP paddock, are you confident you’ll be lining up?
Paturel: At the moment, really I’m not confident to race because I have nothing planned so I hope one opportunity comes. We see at the moment it’s really not easy with the teams and everything and the budget. I hope in the future it will be better for the championship.
GateDrop: Have you got any offers even to race national championships like French Elite or the ADAC MX Masters or anything like that, would that interest you?
Paturel: Yeah, I don’t have really a good offer at the moment, like I say I have nothing planned so I just keep training physically, try to stay happy.
GateDrop: I think there’s five teams leaving the MXGP paddock for next year, should we be worried about the future in Europe and do you think the organisers could maybe help a little bit more?
Paturel: Yeah I’m really worried for the future, especially for the private teams and private riders like me, we need to really be in the top seven or top five to survive. We see many teams close and I think we need to change many things, like the age rule, like in World SX, to have your rider stay in the (MX2) class. I think they need to work on this for the future to keep the championship alive.
GateDrop: You were here watching some supercross this weekend, did you enjoy your weekend watching here in Paris and maybe in the future we could see you race Supercross, maybe in France or somewhere like that?
Paturel: Yeah we see if I’m going to ride, I don’t know, but it was nice to see the best riders also like Jett, he was really fast.
GateDrop: Perfect, thank you very much for your time and we hope to see you next year in the paddock.
Paturel: Thank you.
