During press day at San Diego, we had the priviedge of getting to chat to Ricky Carmicahel, not only about A1 but also aspects of his career including his battles with Sébastien Tortelli, one of maybe one or two men that could even challenge Carmichael outdoors on their day!
See how the conversation went when we brought up the rapid Frenchman…
There’s very few people who could challenge you, let alone beat you outdoors, just a word on Sébastien Tortelli. He was one of the rare guys who could really push you. He was telling me a story when you were both at Suzuki, training on the 450s, and he would do a faster lap time than you, and your mom wouldn’t let you go in until you beat him!
Yeah, yeah. I don’t know if my mom wouldn’t let me, it was probably me! Probably me, yeah, because he was at my track, going faster than me. Oh yeah, I got competitive for sure, but I always still have a tremendous amount of respect for Seb. He was one of the toughest competitors, just because he was so strong. Outside of just a little mistake that he’d make just kind of out of nowhere, he was really, really, really hard to beat. He was in great shape, strong, and it didn’t seem like he was bothered by much mentally either. So I really enjoyed racing with him, and respect the hell out of him as a competitor.
On our content calls now, with TV and stuff, we share the same sentiment, as well as ideas and thought processes of guys in the field. We have that same mindset, and it’s really cool to hear that, and that we have the same thoughts.
So I asked him who was harder to race against, you or Stefan Everts, and he said you, slightly because it was like racing against himself. So did you feel you both had the same mindset, you were battling on the track?
Oh, 100%. We were very similar. He’s very honest and to the point, and I was as well. You know, we take a lot of personal responsibility, we don’t blame much on anybody else but ourselves, and I feel like he had that same mindset. So yeah, again, a true competitor, a fun competitor, a great teammate, and yeah, a lot of respect for Seb.
Get the full interview below:
