Ken Roczen has given his view on the Jorge Prado situation while talking to Adam Cianciarulo and Justin Brayton on their new podcast AC & JB. Roczen, who has of course had to make the switch from MXGP to the USA with a lot of expectation as a world champ, albeit in the 250 class, understands the situation Prado is in.
Ken said: “That’s a little bit of a tough one, right? He came in and, you know, Supercross was new to him, got hurt right away. It’s hard coming back from injuries anyways, you know, wherever you are. And then mix that in with something that’s completely new. I am a little bit shocked, I guess, that he hasn’t been better. Having said that, I don’t know, like bike setup wise might be an issue, you know what I mean? At least what I’m thinking.
“And I know for me, the bike has to be right for me to go really, really fast. Or if it’s not, I’m just not that great, you know what I mean? Having said that, it’s always a little hard to wrap my head around that a factory team doesn’t have some base settings that are, they got to be, you know, in the ballpark and rideable. And then you manipulate it from there.
“Having said that, I have seen it also with my own eyes, being with Honda, just something to where like nothing really works, the window of the bike isn’t that big. So I am not 100% sure what he exactly struggles with. Having said that, I did expect him to be, this is not a bash on him by any means, I did expect him to be a little bit better and especially now that we are a few rounds in, and I haven’t seen that, you know? Progression of getting better, bit by bit, so I’m not sure what the actual problem is.
“You got to give him time. It wouldn’t surprise me that if by the end of the season, he all of a sudden there’s a podium guy. We don’t know until we get there. So yeah, just a little bit of a surprise that he hasn’t really put it up there yet. And even with the starts, because we know how good he is with the start. I know he’s on a completely different bike and I also know how easy it is to say when you are somewhere new or on a new bike that everything’s better, this is better, that is better. And it’s, you know, but then when when it comes down to it, the reality is that it just ain’t there yet. I don’t know, I’m more really, really curious just to see where it goes from here in the next two, three rounds, you know?“
Get the full segment of Roczen’s interesting thoughts on Prado’s situation, below:
