Jan Pancar emerged as one of the biggest surprises in the MXGP World Championship last season, regularly mixing it with factory riders despite operating under his own independent structure. The Slovenian’s performances earned widespread praise and raised hopes that a factory-backed opportunity could be on the horizon. However, 2026 has proven to be a more challenging campaign so far. Struggling with food poisoning at the opening round in Argentina disrupted his preparation, while ongoing struggles to find the perfect bike setup have made life difficult against an increasingly competitive MXGP field.
Despite the setbacks, there have been encouraging signs. Pancar showed his speed in the Italian Championship by comfortably defeating Andrea Adamo in a moto at Maggiora, and he believes he is now close to rediscovering the form that made him one of last year’s standout performers. We caught up with the KTM rider to discuss his season so far, the decision to continue with his own setup despite interest from teams, bike development, MXGP track preparation and why he feels his best performances may still be ahead of him in 2026.
GateDrop: Jan, just talk about the start of your season, obviously last year went incredibly well for you, you haven’t quite hit the heights this year so far but it’s not easy out there that’s for sure…
Pancar: I would say the competition is higher like every year so it’s not easy. I had food poisoning in Argentina so I feel like that set me back a lot physically. I’m catching up a bit but I feel now that body wise I am 100%. This weekend I was struggling a lot with the bike setup, we actually changed something every time I went to the track. We finally got the setting for the last moto so I would hope that would be sooner but at least we got there.
GateDrop: Can you just elaborate, what sort of things did you change on the bike and what worked for the last moto?
Pancar: We just changed some clickers on the suspension, the handlebar position and the clamps so we changed quite a lot because I was just not feeling confident with the bike. I kept losing the balance a lot in the corners, I just didn’t have the best feeling around the corners and I was just trying to find the right feeling. It was just really small things but at the end they matter a lot.
GateDrop: Can we just go back to over the winter, obviously after a great season last year I thought you were probably going to earn yourself a ride. You did have a few offers I think but at the end you decided to stay with your own structure. Can you just talk a little bit about the decision behind staying with your own structure when you maybe could have went to another team?
Pancar: It was a difficult decision at the end I would say. It was a really hard decision. At the end I would stay on my own but I would hope I would get a better offer but I didn’t. I just hope I do better this season this second part of the season and get a really good offer from someone.
GateDrop: Just on your setup for this year, is it exactly the same as last year or after a good year did KTM step up and give you a little bit more support?
Pancar: It’s kind of the same setup. Maybe a few little changes but not much but you can see that even small changes can disrupt the feeling on the bike. We are trying to make it as close as possible.
GateDrop: At the Italian championship the other week at Maggiora, you beat Adamo by 30 seconds in a moto, I mean that must have been a good confidence builder, he got a podium here so it shows the speed is good…
Pancar: You know, when I start good and can ride my own rhythm, I have the speed and I was trying to find that feeling with the bike that I had at the Italian Championship and I didn’t have that all day Saturday and even the first moto. Unfortunately I was struggling with the feeling and just small things you don’t think about it. In this kind of field, some small things can really make or break you. I need better starts for sure – Adamo has really good stats this season and if he starts up front he can find a good rhythm. I feel like if I start in the top five that I can race with the guys.
GateDrop: What was your thoughts on the track? This year they brought in a lot of dirt and so yesterday it was softer than usual but it did get quite rough and rutty but then with the rain – as usual it was so one lined. Do you think they can do anything better in terms of prep to make it easier to pass or not?
Pancar: Sure, they could do a bit better. I would say maybe some bumps on the inside of the corners to make it possible that the outside is more competitive because now the inside is so much shorter that even if it’s like a big rut it’s still faster than outside. What’s interesting is that they bring the new dirt. For me it was better before but the dirt was actually really grippy but I think they didn’t do it early enough because as you can see in some corners was like hard and then in one part was like one meter holes and then hard again. I think that’s just because of the prep, the dirt was not compact enough.
GateDrop: What are your thoughts on the MXGP track prep these days. I mean they love ripping tracks and ruts everywhere. It feels like we don’t really have that many rock hard pack tracks these days although to be fair most the riders complain about hard pack tracks so I kind of understand it but what’s your point of view? I miss the odd one just for something different…
Pancar: I mean if it’s a really hard pack track, I don’t mind it actually as long as it isn’t too dusty but if it’s dusty and you don’t see nothing, that’s not ideal. I think the way this track was before was a normal hard pack track. Okay, there was some really deep ruts but the take offs and stuff was really hard pack. Maybe sometimes it’s better for the racing if it’s not so rutty or at least the straightaways are more smooth so you can move more. Now it was just you have a big line out of the corner and you have to go with this one to the next corner and it was hard to move a lot. For sure they can give us more wider tracks because even in France was really narrow and then there’s just one good line of course.
GateDrop: Compared to last year, do you feel you’re that far off in terms of your best level and do you just think it’s a few things or what do you think you need to get back to your very best?
Pancar: I feel like I’m pretty close to my level now with the last moto and I felt like I could push again. You know, when I raced in Italian championship I can ride with Adamo no problem. I think I’m pretty close to the level but I just have to get the starts and everything together. I hope now the settings will work for me and have the same settings for the rest of the season and then I can just try to improve on my riding.
