Hear from the title contenders ahead of the 2024 MXGP opener in Argentina!
Prado: After winning the title last year I put the number one for the last rounds and this will be the first time I can use it for the full season. It’s nice, I like to ride with number one, it reminds me of the hard work I put in last year. It looks good on the bike, it’s almost a dream come true, we all fight to get a MXGP title and I did it last year, happy and proud to be number one.
Gajser: I’m feeling good, glad to be here (Argentina) , last year I missed it and I really like this track. We had a good off-season and everything is ready to start the world championship and I can’t wait until tomorrow.
Herlings: I feel a bit better than coming in last year because last year I hadn’t race (a GP) for 15 months basically. Now, I was out for a little less long, two months more than the other guys I guess. I know myself the first race is always difficult, I am like a diesel and work my way back into it. The competition is very strong, I am not getting any younger and the guys next to me are looking fast, looking sharp and looking strong, it will be very difficult, I am fully aware of that but I will just do my best like I always do and hopefully still battle the boys at some point.
I tried to work on my starts and improve them. To be worse that last year is probably not possible anyway, I have hopefully improved that a bit. Last year I was fighting Jorge for the championship and he was super strong on the Saturday, also the Sunday, the Saturday he won so many times – luckily they didn’t give the full 25 points on the ten, so that was the positive thing. So we try to improve on that as well, to be a bit sharper, it’s more of a sprint race, ten minutes shorter. We at least try!
Febvre: It feels good, we had good preparation this winter, no injuries, it’s always good to start the season healthy and prepared. The pre-season races have been good, let’s see where we are in race conditions and definitely happy to be here in Argentina and ready to go. I know Jeremy from the past, nothing really changed, it’s good for the team to have two good riders and I think we can be on the podium every single round.
Renaux: Really looking forward to this 24 season. 23 was not the best for me, had a really big injury in Spain unfortunately which is not fully super healed and still causing some troubles. But we had a good winter, we trained really hard and yeah, we are ready for the season – looking forward to it. Change of team and change of teammates didn’t really affect much because we still work as a brand (Yamaha) and they still put the same effort into us riders. We kept developing the bike because last year we had a new bike and it was a bit of test for us last year. this season we come in with more knowledge about the bike and better preparation so i think we are in good condition and definitely aiming to put my hands on that MXGP title.
Geerts: I’m feeling really good on the bike. Last year in Ernee I was still struggling with the new 450 because it was a brand new bike for me. But now after we did a lot of testing, I feel really good on the bike, we had a good winter and I am looking forward to starting the season tomorrow. I just want to take it easy and step by step, we will see where we will end up at the end of the season. I don’t have a specific goal, I just want to do my best and be better and better during the season.
Adamo: I had a really good winter. We have been through many days of testing because we had some changes on the bike that took some time to adjust too. I think we are in a pretty good spot, maybe not the best level but a pretty good spot. I spent a lot of time in Belgium, this year I am much more confident than I was last year. I am pretty happy and pretty relaxed. I don’t feel much weight (of being champion), not so much pressure at the moment.
De Wolf: To go back to last year, it all went well in Latvia (won the GP) went testing on Thursday I crashed and had a fracture in my ankle then another big injury before Lommel. For this year we really prepared, physically I feel a lot better than even last year at the beginning of the season, I am feeling really comfortable.
