Ben Spies has had a rough start to his 2012 season and after four races, he finds himself eleventh in the standings with just 18 points and his best result so far is an 8th place finish (Estoril).
Massimo “Maio “Meregalli, Spies’ team manager in Yamaha in an interview with Sportmediaset.
com talked about his rider’s lack of results, however he believes that Spies will turn things around in this weekend’s Catalunya GP where the Texas Terror scored his first GP podium.
Here’s the translation:“It’s been quite a difficult start, more than expected,” said Meregalli.
“It all started during warm-up in Qatar, when we thought the problem was caused by a tire that had too many laps on it.
At Jerez is was a lack of front end feeling and at Estoril we compared his set-up with Lorenzo’s and and with Jorge’s set-up the situation improved.
but in the race Ben made some mistakes that penalized him.
At Le Mans, it was a just a matter of bad luck, the bad start created a problem with his helmet that leaked water inside.
We couldn’t have had a worse beginning.
– You’ve known Ben since 2009, how is he handling the situation?“For sure he isn’t living the moment well, even though he doesn’t talk a lot.
But he also knows what these problems are caused by and this consoles him a little.
Seeing how all the other Yamaha are doing well, his situation can’t make him happy.
” – Spies on Twitter oftened referred to Simoncelli, with pictures and messages.
Could Marco’s accident have influenced him?“I tried jokingly talk about it on Friday at Estoril.
He told me that the day that he’s frightened of racing that’s when he’ll stop.
But this isn’t the moment”.
-How is the team reacting to it?“We all talked and confirmed that the team is behind him.
Ben perceives this closeness.
”-But is his spot at risk?“At the moment nothing has changed for him.
Now the priority is to resign Lorenzo, then Yamaha will decide on the second rider.
We only want to take the pressure away and we’ve told him not to worry.
”-When I see you him fighting for the top positions?“We aren’t looking for any excuses, but Estoril and Le Mans are two tracks that Ben doesn’t like.
And don’t forget that in Qatar things were going well before the race.
Last year in Barcelona he got his first podium in MotoGP with Yamaha’s satellite team.
I believe that this weekend things will change.
”