MotoGP – Hafizh Syahrin suffering with the KTM RC16

Bruno Gomes

March 12, 2019

Hafizh Syahrin was one of the greatest surprises to arrive in MotoGP last season when the Malaysian rider was chosen by Hervé Poncharal at the last minute to replace Jonas Folger on the Monster Energy Yamaha Tech3. Syahrin showed great rhythm throughout the year and fought for the title of “Best Rookie” with Franco Morbidelli right until the last race in Valencia.

This season tough, Hafizh Syahrin has been lacking the pace to obtain good lap times, and the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider is the first one to acknowledge that and apologize to the team and fans for his bad performance at the Qatar GP last Sunday when he finished last, crossing the line 43 seconds after race winner Andrea Dovizioso

“It has been a difficult race for me. We have a big gap to the front and I don’t know how to explain it well. I tried to understand the bike on each lap, which was quite tough and it was not easy. I couldn’t keep the pace and while I played with the electronics the gap got bigger and bigger. To be honest, I’m slow at the moment and I don’t have the confidence to push more. I try to learn from today’s race and improve further. I’m sorry for the team and all my friends, who came here to support me. I’m disappointed with myself, but we keep on working hard, we are patient and I hope it’s coming soon”.

It’s clear that Hafizh Syahrin isn’t feeling comfortable aboard the KTM RC16, and that means he can’t push the bike to its limits, and racing at such a high level like in MotoGP, demands that the rider goes beyond the limit of himself and the bike.

Hervé Poncharal, Red Bull KTM Tech3 team manager, that was so happy to retain Hafizh Syahrin with the team for another year, and praised his results in 2018, had some harsh words regarding the young Malaysian

“I can not hide my disappointment, because Hafizh has never been in a good rhythm. We ended up last, the guys behind us have either crashed or retired from the race, so this is not enough. We are here to help and not to shoot on anybody, but I think Hafizh needs to change something because we can’t have such a gap in between our two riders. Let’s hope he’s going to find some interesting things for Argentina”.

Will Hafizh Syahrin be able to find the confidence he needs to push the KTM RC16 to the limit? We hope so, and probably at the Argentina GP, in Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, Syahrin will be able to show what he can do on a MotoGP bike.