Valentin Guillod has had two very strong seasons with the SR Honda team in the MXGP World Championship finishing in the top ten of the championship despite the team having a limited budget.
The Swiss rider sadly still hasn’t had the right offer for the 2025 season so as things stand he is planning to start the 2025 season as a privateer. Guillod still loves racing and feels he has some unfinished business so is motivated to find the right opportunity.
“Ok 2025. 2x 9th overall in the MXGP World Championship 2023-2024, 20 top 10 GP results, P4 best result, P5 of a GP. It’s not good enough. Let’s say, I didn’t find the right match. I’m getting ready to go to the 1st GP as a private rider and who knows how life is going. Btw you will see me on the bike only beginning of January”, Guillod stated on social media.
We contacted Guillod and he confirmed that he is planning to start the season as a privateer with Yamaha machinery. He is currently trying to get the budget together to line up in Argentina so he’s hopeful he will be at round one of the series.
If the budget for Argentina turns out to be an issue, then his MXGP season will definitely start in Spain for round two. The Swiss talent is hoping to only start the season with his privateer structure before he can find the opportunity with a team to finish the season with.
If an opportunity with a team isn’t picked up before mid season then it hasn’t been ruled out that Guillod could head to America to take on the AMA Nationals instead. The one thing that is clear is that Guillod is motivated to continue in the sport and find the right opportunity with a good team.
After the Swiss GP this year, Guillod told us just how much he is enjoying racing and wants to continue:
“For sure, in my head, I really would like to be a 100% full factory rider. I’ve never been in my career, so it’s on one side of my head. Then the second thing is that I’m really happy with the team, so now we are speaking for next year. The third thing is about how long I’m still going to ride. I will be 32 in December, so 2025, 2026 and 2027. I will then turn 35 in December, so yeah, for sure. Three years for sure, but when I see what Cairoli did in Arnhem, OK, on Sunday he struggled a bit, for sure, but I think he was a long time out of racing, so I think if mentally he’s feeling good, physically feeling good, still 36, okay… Between three and four years”, Guillod told GateDrop.com.
