Xavier Simeon admitted that his confidence has taken a knock after a terrible weekend at Brno. The Belgian qualified down in 33rd after suffering with chattering problems on the Mistral 610 and could only make it as high as 23rd in the race.
The Tech 3 rider was at a loss to explain where the pace from previous races had gone and admits he will have to analyse the data to find out what went wrong.
“The whole weekend was very difficult for me. We changed the bike, but the times never really changed. The race was a bit more consistent, but still too slow as my target is to finish in the Top 15. I finished 23rd today and that is not what I had expected. We have to check the data now and see what the problem is. It is not normal that it changes so much from on track to another. I never had a good feeling with the bike this weekend, for which reason I also lost a bit of my confidence. I have to work with my crew chief now and try to explain why we could fight for Top 10 last race and not now anymore.”
Team Manager Hervé Poncharal also felt Simeon had performed below par this weekend and hopes he will be back on form at the Indianapolis Grand Prix in two weeks time.
“We did not see the Xavier that we know he can be for all the weekend. The only highlight was on Saturday morning when the track was wet and we saw him within the Top 10. But Xavier did not find the right feeling with the bike and had a lot of problems this weekend. Let’s hope this is going to be a one-event problem and he is back as we saw him before when we go to Indianapolis. It was a tough weekend for him for sure.”
