On Track Off Road No. 191

By Neil Morrison
A new swingarm, engine or exhaust
may, of course, bring other
benefits. But the 29-year old rarely
handed out praise, such was his
focus on fixing that front end feel.
Another team member noted how
his evaluation of parts amounted to
four-letter profanity. When quizzed
on the part further, the said fourletter
profanity was simply repeated
but with added vigour. “There were
not many ‘candies’ coming from
his side to our side, that’s for sure,”
Beirer admitted.
But more than the riding style, it
was his demeanour and attitude
that was Zarco’s ultimate downfall.
He rarely – if ever – attempted to
forge relationships within his team.
By all accounts what the watching
world saw on TV at Jerez (he
was filmed saying, “[either] we are
f***ing s**t in chassis, or we are
f***king s**t in controlling power”)
was a regular occurrence. “He could
not control his emotions,” Beirer
said. “He put so much stress on
himself when things were not going
easy. To succeed at this level, of
course you need to be emotional,
but you also need to calm down
and analyse the situation.”
And Tech 3 boss Hervé Poncharal
believes Zarco was all-too-aware of
this fault. “Every time I met Johann
in the hospitality we were talking a
lot with [coach] Jean-Michel Bayle.
He was always saying, ‘I need to be
a bit calmer, I need to understand
this is a new project, so it’s step by
step.’ Everything was fine. He’s a
reasonable guy. But then he puts
his leathers on, goes in the garage,
does five laps, comes in, screaming,
shouting and forgets about the attitude
he said he should have.
“Even after the summer break I
saw him in the Czech Republic on
the Thursday before we started. He
said, ‘I’ve been thinking a lot and
I have a good position. My bike is
not bad. I do what I like. So clearly I
need to change my way of behaving
for the second part of the season
and next year.’ [Yet on the Friday] It
was exactly the same.”
This hasn’t been an easy time
for Zarco away from the track.
A fraught relationship with longtime
manager Laurent Fellon was
brought to a definitive close over
the winter. T
o hear him speak of his manager
during those success-filled years in
Moto2 was to listen to a man in raptures
to a kind of cult leader. Having
moved from his parents home in
Nice to Fellon’s training quarters in
Avignon, Zarco was engulfed in a
strict, rigorous programme which
honed the focus that took him to 16
grand prix wins, 47 podiums and
two world titles.
But it came at the cost of the regular
interaction that moulds most
adolescents into socially-aware beings
who value strong relationships
with those around them. And breaking
with a figure that had shaped
his upbringing was always going to
require a period of acclimatisation.
“We were a little bit unlucky to get
him in the wrong moment,” Beirer
said. “For me, something huge
happened when he split up with
Laurent Fellon, who was a guy who
could steer him mentally better.”
While Fellon’s limitations as a manager
were best distilled by his decision
to prematurely sign with KTM
in the winter of 2017, the eccentric
Frenchman could keep his rider in
line in the box.