Valencia MotoGP: Hiroshi Aoyama interview

Hiroshi Aoyama has spoken of his milestone success in Valencia after the Japanese rider clinched the last 250cc two-stroke world championship this afternoon.

The Japanese rider gave an interview after his success in Spain that made him Honda’s first world champion in Grand Prix racing since 2006.

How does it feel to be the last 250 World Champion in history?

I have been racing for 23 years, so I have been waiting for this moment for 23 years.

It’s incredible! I am very proud to win this title, and it makes it extra special that it’s the last 250 title. Today I wanted to win the race, so I was pushing, pushing, pushing, but finally I pushed too much and went outside of the track.

I was riding in the gravel, like riding motocross and I kept telling myself ‘Don’t crash! Don’t crash!’ I came back on track, but I was so far back and it was so difficult to think about my position.

Finally I saw Simoncelli had crashed, so I knew then that my position was okay to win the title. Today’s race was not the best for me but to win the championship is fantastic.

This has been a difficult season, but my team staff gave me great support, we had a great team, they cheered me up and gave me extra motivation when I needed it.

I want to say a big, big thank you to everyone – Scot, Honda, Dunlop, everyone who helped me. It was not so easy, but I could push hard with all this help.

You came to GPs in 2004 as the first winner of Honda’s ‘GP scholarship’ for young riders, how did that change your career?

It’s not so easy for Japanese riders to get into Grands Prix, so it was very helpful. It was a great opportunity to participate in GP racing.

During those two years I won my first GP at Motegi, which was good for Honda. Those two years were a great experience for me, and, of course, my brother Shuhei won the next scholarship!

I respect what Honda did with their programme for young riders. I have been with Honda a long time.

I had a good experience riding with KTM for three seasons, but it was nice to come back to Honda. I started out with Honda, so I think my riding style fits Honda machine.

What did you do before you won the GP scholarship?

I rode in the All-Japan 250 championship for Team HARC, which has a deep relationship with Honda.

I guess that was when Honda first took an interest in my career. Before that I raced a Honda RS125 in a private team, supported by my family and other people.

Tell us about the highs and lows of 2009.

2009 has been quite good for us! The biggest high was winning my first victory of the year at Jerez, plus, of course, winning the title here at Valencia.

Before the season started did you think you could win the title?

My expectation was that it would be a difficult season, but I wanted to win some races.

It was quite difficult to think about title because the team, the bike and everything were fixed very late. KTM decided to stop their 250 programme quite late, so it was late when I signed for Scot.

For that reason the winter was very hard for me, because for a long time I didn’t know what to do, then at the last moment I found this team, so I was very lucky.

But I only have one bike, it’s a small team and Honda stopped developing the 250 two-stroke two or three years ago, so no one was really expecting good results.

Why was Jerez so special?

Winning at Jerez is very special, I think it’s the same for all riders. Jerez is the first race of the European season, there is always a very big crowd and it is never easy to win there.

Somehow I won the race and afterwards I said to myself: ‘maybe if I make a good job with this team there is some possibility of the title’.

You won Jerez with some fantastic late braking…

One of the RS250RW’s good points is that it is very stable and very comfortable on the brakes.

This was probably our number one strong point, so I had to use it to my advantage.

It is very good to have a bike that is stable on the brakes because at the end of races, when you are fighting with your rivals, you can overtake easier than others.

This helps you make a good race. Also, the overall package of the bike is very good.

What was the low point of 2009?

Phillip Island. We were getting some good result but then we finished seventh at Phillip Island.

I didn’t feel good on the bike, so I couldn’t push so much. Also, Simoncelli had been winning some races, catching me on points, so I thought ‘this is not good’.

The race was stopped after another rider crashed; without that maybe I could have finished fourth, but after the race you cannot change the result.

You have led the championship for a long while, was there ever a time when you rode for points?

Before Phillip Island I was 28 points ahead of Simoncelli, this is not so much, because if I had crashed, then I would have had no real points advantage.

So, I never rode just for points; in Australia I just didn’t feel comfortable on the bike.

The next weekend at Sepang was good. I had a good feeling with the bike, so I could push hard and win the race.

Has it been good working with Scot?

They are a small team but they know the Honda RS250RW very well. They have worked with Honda for a long time, so they know the bike’s good points and negative points, and what they can and cannot improve.

That makes racing easier, they have helped me a lot.

How would you describe your riding style?

I think it’s difficult to describe your own riding style. I think I need to be more aggressive because sometimes maybe I am too smooth or too calm and sometimes that’s not enough.

But many 250 riders go to MotoGP and have success so it will be quite interesting to see how I can adapt to this kind of bike.

I think I am like a typical Japanese rider – I like to analyse riding, data and set-up, so I spend a lot of time meeting with my chief mechanic, my tyre engineer and my suspension staff. This is part of my character.

What four-stroke experience do you have?

At the 2003 Suzuka Eight Hours I was third rider for the Ukawa/Izutsu HRC team, so I rode the VTR1000SPW in practice, but I did not race.

I think a MotoGP bike is quite different from a Superbike, with many more rider controls, so I need to ride the RC212V before I understand how I will fit this bike.

What are your winter plans, to train for MotoGP?

I haven’t even thought about the winter, I have only been thinking about this last race!

This year I have been out of Japan for a long time, so now I want to go home to see my family.

Are you looking forward to being a MotoGP rider?
For me, I feel proud and happy to be a MotoGP rider. But beyond that I haven’t thought much about MotoGP, I have been thinking only about 250s.

Today a dream came true for me, tomorrow another dream will come true for me when I ride a MotoGP bike for the first time.

The level is very high in MotoGP. I will try my best, study and improve, that is my target for next season.

Will you feel pressure being the only Japanese rider in MotoGP?
I don’t feel any pressure.