Francois Lemariey interview

Francois Lemariey the young team manager of the Monster Energy Kawasaki team has been involved in the sport for some time now and slowly he is learning, and becoming more experienced in his job. It wasn’t that long ago that he was just a face in the crowd at the Grand Prix races.

“I spent three years with CLS Kawasaki team, then I started working for Clement Desalle at the LS Honda Team in 2010. Working for Clement was my first real test and gave me a good experience. It got me noticed in the paddock, and at the end of the season I got a call from Thierry Chizat Suzzoni from the Kawasaki Factory team and he offered me the job of manager of his team.”

The young team manager had a big job when the season started in Qatar a month or two ago. The Frenchman wanted that the arrival of American Ryan Villopoto would go as easy as possible, but he also knew that having Villopoto in the MXGP series would attract a lot of attention to the team and the series.

“He is a big name in motocross, so it’s nice to have such a big name in the MXGP series. For normal people it’s a dream that came true, but we are professional in motocross and we focus on our job and the job was to have a good bike for him. We worked hard in the winter to get the best material. Unfortunately his injury in Italy was a disappointment, because he was making good progress.”

As for the pressure of leading a team with a rider of the ability of Villopoto, Lemariey was excited about the plans for 2015, but he also knew the team had to put their heads down and work hard, with or without pressure everybody under the Kawasaki team tent knew they needed to work at their best to give the American what he needed to be competitive in the series.

“I would say we felt the pressure, but we are professional in our job and we organized a lot with Monster and our other sponsors to keep the riders happy and we keep doing our job. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it as we improved, along with Ryan.”

As for 2016, at this point nobody knows if Villopoto will return to the MXGP series next year or not. With a lot of work put into this season and big improvements in his results Lemariey feels it would be a good move for RV to return for another shot at the bigger motocross championship in the world.

“It is a question you need to ask him, it would be interesting. He learnt a lot in the overseas races and of course Italy was not what we hoped for, but again he looked good before the crash. He learnt a lot about the track and I think it would be interesting for the future if he came back in 2016.”