Tuesday Conversation: Sylvain Guintoli

November 17, 2009 by Jesse Cecil
Filed under Tuesday Conversation

Sylvain Guintoli moved from MotoGP to the British Superbike Championship for 2009, and his debut season was impressive despite being truncated by injury. Riding for Worx Crescent Suzuki, Guintoli picked up a race win and three additional podiums in the first two rounds of the series, and he appeared the only rider capable of challenging Leon Camier in the early stages of the season. His early performance and steady recovery (following the Round-3 crash that left him with a broken tibia and fibia) earned him a seat on the 2010 factory Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team, and he made his series debut at the season-ending Portimao event. We spoke with the amiable Frenchman, now at home in the UK, to discuss his first race weekend with Alstare Suzuki and how he feels about the move.

Former MotoGP and BSB pilot Sylvain Guintoli will contend the 2010 World SBK series for Alstare Suzuki. Photo Courtesy Alstare

RRX: With a background of so many years in Grand Prix racing, what are your impressions of the BSB series in terms of organization, atmosphere, and competition?
Sylvain Guintoli: Well, I’ve been living in the UK for about five years now, so I’ve been following the BSB championship for a while, and it’s quite popular here in England. If you want to compare it to the Grand Prix series, the first thing that shocked me was the tracks, because most of the UK tracks have got a reputation for being hilly with loads of trees everywhere and the [barriers] not so far from the track, which is true for most of them. So it was a bit of a shock going [with] 200-plus horsepower bikes to a track like that.

The championship itself is very well organized—I was surprised. Well, not surprised, but it’s a domestic championship and you expect to be a step down, but it was still very well organized. There are loads of factory bikes as well, with factory teams and big sponsors. So, in terms of image and what the teams, trucks, and bikes look like, it’s very similar. The main difference, I’d say, is the difference in the tracks.

You’ve raced GP bikes for most of your career. Was it difficult to transition to superbikes?
I think it is easier to go that way, because I’ve been learning on 125s, 250s, and then MotoGP. I tried the superbike for the first time at the start of the year, and the switch wasn’t easy, but the adaptation was quite quick. I think that when you come from a superbike and 600 background, then maybe it’s more difficult to go fast on a 250 or a MotoGP bike. So, I didn’t find the adaptation too difficult. This year the most difficult thing was to get used to the very small tracks and loads of twisty corners everywhere; that was the main challenge for me.

How do you feel about your BSB season, given that you missed a large part of it due to injury?
Well, the way I see the season is … the GSX-R1000 K9 was brand new, and we had this bike that was completely different to set up and make it perform, and we had to [work] very quickly. We did quite a few tests in Spain over the winter, which went very well. We did a lot of testing that was very positive, and developing the bike was very interesting.

Then we arrived at the first race, and we were very ready. I did the pole, won the first race, and came second in Race 2; we took the championship lead straight away. Then at Oulton Park I had two podiums. We came to Donington Park and I was quite a bit faster than anyone else in the practice, but then I got the injury. Up to the injury we were very quick, and going very well; I had really enjoyed working with the team and the bike.

After the injury, for me it was a big thing to try to come back as quickly as possible, because it was quite a severe injury. I came back very early and my leg was not mended, but I couldn’t cope anymore with doing nothing [laughs]. So, I came back and tried to pick up my rhythm and find my feeling again, and toward the end we were starting to come back.

How much of that recovery was physical, and how much of it took mental energy?
For me it was all mental. Well, mainly. For some reason, when you ride the bike—I mean, loads of riders ride with broken bones—for me it is more how bothered are you about crashing on your injury; how far are you going to push it? It’s difficult. I’ve had this [injury] this year, but before that I was very lucky because I’ve been racing a long time and I never had one. Well, except collarbones and things like that; I’ve broken collarbones, but that is nothing really major, it’s not a bad injury. But with something like this, for sure it played in my mind a lot, and it still is, I guess, even if it’s a lot less.

When I restarted, it was exactly two and a half months after the accident, but at the accident the bone was out and my leg was the wrong way round. When you see that and you feel it, it’s not very nice, really [laughs]. For sure when you come back, you’ve got that on your mind, and you know that it’s not solid. You know that if you crash quite hard on it, it will break again, and probably it’s another trip on the crutches for a few months. When you have a very bad injury like that, I think it takes a lot of time, and you’ve got to keep fighting. I’m still fighting now.

I’ve done the race in World Superbike in Portimao, we had some good tests, and we’re going to have some more testing. Then I’m having some more surgery to remove some more of the screws. After that, it’s pretty sure I’m going to come back next year with a brand-new leg, but for now we’re still hanging on to finish the season and testing program.

The final '09 World SBK event provided a first testing opportunity for Guintoli and crew. Photo Courtesy Alstare

Now that you’ve had your first race weekend with Alstare, what are your thoughts on the World Superbike series?
For me, it is a great experience, and it is great that we had a chance to do that [race]. We had the first racing contact with the team, and you never learn as much as when you are racing, so it was great to be able to do that. Also, for me it was a great way for me to learn the track, because I have never been there before. I was working with the crew that I will be working with next year as well, so we had a great first racing contest together with the pressure off. It was one shot—we’re not playing in the championship because my leg is bad and everyone knows it—so we just took it easy and tried to build the relationship all together. It was a great experience, a great opportunity.

I’ve been to a few World Superbike races at Portimao before, not racing but in the paddock, so I knew a little bit how the paddock was, and definitely the WSB paddock is a good place to be really, and I’m very happy about this switch.

How are you getting along with the Alstare Suzuki team?
So far we’ve got on really well; we had quite a good weekend, as I was saying, learning the track. I’ve learned, as well, how competitive the World Superbike championship is. Everyone is really very close, and you have to fight to make your place. We had a good qualifying session, but we had a little technical problem in Race 1, so I had to stop. Then, Race 2 was quite good; I managed to beat my teammate, which was quite good as well.

Then we had two days of testing with the new bike coming in the middle, so it was very interesting, and the first contact definitely was very good, very positive.

And the communication is good?
Yeah, and for me it makes a change, because the team is based in Belgium but my team is all French-speaking. So for me it is a change, because I can speak French a little bit, and I almost forgot how to speak French [laughs], so for me that is a good point. The other day after the first run in the first practice session, I did the whole debriefing in English—I forgot I was surrounded by French! They stopped me at the end and said, “We’re all French here, you can speak French.” I’m not used to speaking French anymore, so it’s good for me; it’s a bit of a grammatical lesson for me, because I almost forgot.

The Parkalgar circuit has been touted as one of the best in Europe. What’s your take on Portimao after getting acquainted with it?
It’s a good place to be! Actually, we got lucky as well, [because] I had to stay ten days, so I took the whole family. We had a villa there and just stayed, and it was brilliant weather; it was always between 25 and 30 [degrees Celsius]. Outside the track it’s a great place to be. We went to the beach a lot, and it’s a very nice place. The track itself is brilliant with massive up and downs, wide, very quick—a very interesting track. Definitely one of the best.

How does the Alstare GSX-R1000 differ from the Worx bike?
Actually, I thought it was going to be a lot closer, but when I stepped on it, it was a lot different. Alstare uses different settings, and this year they also use different suspension. The Alstare bike uses Ohlins and this year we raced the [Worx] Crescent bike with Showa, so that in itself made a big difference. Both teams have factory support, but they build the engines differently, so the power delivery and loads of things like the electronics —Alstare uses Magnetti Marelli—are different as well. It was very, very different; it almost felt like it wasn’t the same bike.

Then as well, I’ve been racing the Crescent bike on all the small tracks in the UK, and then we go on a different bike, with different everything as I’ve just said, on a very different track from what you can find in the UK. So, maybe that was also why the feeling was different. But it felt like, compared to the other guys, that we had a strong engine. The bike felt good—really good.

What kinds of things will you be working on over the winter?
Well, at the test in Portimao, we got to try the 2010 bike, which is again very different. The engine is in a different place, the fork is different, the shock is new as well, we got a completely new system for the tank, and also a brand-new swingarm. So, when we swapped from the race bike to this bike, everything felt very different. We did that on the second day, so we were starting to pick up the pace at the end of the second day. Actually, Leon Haslam ran the bike a bit earlier than us; he ran the bike on the first and the second day. On the second day, he managed to finish with a very fast rhythm.

For me, it’s got some points where it is very strong, like on the braking areas. Then there are other places where we need to improve, but definitely the new bike looks like it’s got a lot of potential. I think Suzuki, with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the GSX-R next year, they really want to make a point, and I think they’ve come up with some great stuff for us.

Some of the tracks in World Superbike will be the same ones you raced in MotoGP. Are you looking forward to returning to familiar territory?
Yeah, definitely! That’s going to be a great feeling for me, as I’ll know about half the tracks. I think there are thirteen tracks, and I’ll know about seven or something like that. So it’s good, it’s always nice to step back to some places where you’ve raced in the past.

Guintoli expects to be fighting for the front in 2010. Photo Courtesy Alstare

I’m definitely very happy to go back to my favorite track, Philip Island; that’s definitely great news. There are a lot of tracks that I am happy to come back to, like Brno and Assen, tracks like that. I’ll be happy to go back to Portimao now, as well. All these tracks are part of the MotoGP and the history, and it’s great to come back to that.

Do you have any specific goals for your first season in World Superbike?
Well, we’ve got to win an occasional podium, that’s what we’re aiming at. We also need to carry on the development. It’s a very competitive and strong [series], but it’s difficult to say what will be our place, because there will be lots of new packages and riders on new bikes, but I think I should be able to fight for the front. That’s what we’re aiming at.

When you see the lap times that, for example, Jonathan Rea was putting in at the test, does that seem reachable with the package you’ll have?
Yeah, he has posted some very quick lap times, but actually, Leon posted some very quick ones on the Suzuki. So, the lap times are good to look at, they are good to make stories on the lap times over the winter, but I think that for now it is very early to say. Just because a rider is quick on one lap over the winter test—although I think Rea will be on form next year—it doesn’t mean they’re going to be there [during the season]. There are loads of riders that have posted times, but they don’t have any rhythm, so it is difficult to say now. What I think is that our bike has got a lot of evolutions, and if we manage to put it all together, we should be in for a good shot.

What will you be up to over the winter?
We’re going testing again next week, then after that I am going to take a little holiday to the hospital [laughs] to get all the screws removed. Normally, we go skiing for the New Year, but I can’t with the leg; it would be too risky. So, I don’t know, I’ll probably sit at home and sing some Christmas Carols or something like that.

Tuesday Conversation: Sylvain Guintoli

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