Frustrated McPhee looking for support and solutions

A clearly frustrated John McPhee told MCN after Sunday’s French Grand Prix that his season is ” season is fading away from us and we’re running out of time” to get his year back on track after another disappointing weekend.

Having not received his 2015 chassis until immediately prior to the season opener McPhee had strong performances in Qatar and Texas but the Racing Team Germany rider has struggled since then. The Honda package is dominating the class in the hands of Danny Kent and despite Alexis Masbou’s Qatar victory it’s clear that RTG are struggling.

For McPhee the problems were exacerbated by two crashes but even so it was clear after the race how much of an uphill task that the Scotsman faces:

“It was a difficult weekend for us and we were struggling with the feeling and to get the bike to turn,” said McPhee. “We had some technical problems on Saturday and couldn’t get the bike running, we had a misfire, and I only did three laps and then had the exact same crash as on the first day.

“Qualifying was a total no-show for everyone so on the whole day on Saturday I only did four laps. In the warmup I felt really bad on the bike and nothing felt good so we made changes for the race but nothing improved it. With these bikes the lap time is so close and if you don’t have the confidence you’ll struggle.”

While the team tested in Spain after the race in Jerez the solutions are still not clear to the team with the rider feeling that the team have been able to determine some areas that don’t work but haven’t been able to find the answers to their problems.

“We tried to get work done in Spain but we never went forward with the bike; we eliminated things that didn’t work. It kind of tells me that we’re working in the wrong direction and we need to look in other areas. It’s not just me though Alexis is struggling too so we’re not where we need to be. I think that we need another test because the season is fading away from us and we’re running out of time. It’s not where we want to be running and we need to make improvements.”

With Kent and Fabio Quartararo fighting for wins and podiums every week the package is clearly strong but team insiders are still pushing for support from HRC which until now has not been forthcoming.