MotoGP
The straight-talking Texan helps redbull.com put the world to rights...
There are fewer riders around who will give you a more honest opinion than Colin Edwards.
Well-known for his sense of humour, outspoken approach and ability to laugh in the face of testing times, 2012 has been just that for the MotoGP veteran.
Edwards' tenth season in the World Championship has been spent riding the Suter-BMW CRT machine for Forward Racing, as part of the new MotoGP regulations brought in this year.
With the campaign drawing to a close redbull.com decided to ask him for his views on how the project has gone, and where he thinks it's going. We also wanted to ask him lots of other things too, so we did, and the answers that followed were straight up and most definitely not sugar-coated!
Colin, from the outside looking in it's appeared to be a tough season. What's your view on how the whole CRT thing has gone? “Honestly, it's a pretty tall order to just decide you're going to build a bike to go race alongside all these prototypes. It is never going to happen at the beginning, but something that was even halfway competitive?
“It's been tough. We came in with our eyes open and understanding we'd have to work, and in my opinion we were kind of at a standstill for the first eight or nine races. Whatever we did, nothing seemed to work. Then we got a new electronics package at Misano, and since then everything has seemed better. With these bikes electronics affects everything. If they don't work then the chassis doesn't work, the tyres don't, nothing does.
“As an overall the bikes are obviously not as competitive as maybe what some folks were hoping, or had a vision theoretically of what it could be. Theoretically yes, but the guys next door on each side have 10 years of experience since the MotoGP bikes came out, millions of dollars, and it's just a different level.”
What do you think needs to be done to see some serious progress made? “I think the first thing to be achieved is to really understand what the hell we're shooting for. It's hard to muster up the motivation to leave your wife and kids to come and maybe finish 13th, you know that doesn’t really settle well.
“So for me the first thing we need to figure out is how to get all the bikes on the grid competitive. That's the main thing, and that's the thing that [Dorna CEO Carmelo] Ezpeleta and those guys are going to have to look at, together with all the factories of course. Any time you have the Yamaha, Honda and Ducati guys out here running the engines they've got, I think all these CRT teams would be happy just to have an engine. We'll build a chassis around it, but we need an engine that's competitive and at the moment it's just not that way.
“At the moment we need to figure out the right formula, and I don't know what that formula is. If you could have 20 bikes on the grid that on any given day, with it pissing down rain, maybe the guy who normally runs in 20th could at least be in the top five... Well it needs to be something like that.”
This is your tenth year in MotoGP, and before that you spent eight in Superbikes. How much longer do you think you'll keep riding at this level? “On the riding side I'm not so sure. Next year might be it, I don't know. We'll see, maybe one after, if possible. I haven't even thought about that! I still look forward to riding and racing motorcycles, and pushing my limits. I can't really tell you right now I'm ready to say 'Yeah okay, I'm done!'. That's not in my brain yet.”
Okay, so tell us, in more than 20 years racing who have been your most interesting team-mates? “Two for me. Obviously Valentino [Rossi] was a different experience... We were team-mates, you know how that whole thing works... That was good!
“Then I really enjoyed my 2010 season with Ben [Spies], that was a lot of fun too. We live a couple of hours from one another, and having the same kind of attitude or whatever it is, we just got along well and that was fun.
“Those were the two team-mates I would say I remember through my Grand Prix days as being a real pleasure to have as team-mates.”
With the news that Dorna, the owners of MotoGP, have now taken control of World Superbikes too, what do you think it means for both Championships seeing as you have experience of riding in both? “Motorcycling right now is just in dire straits, if you ask me my opinion. It's just in trouble. So any way we can make it cheaper and any way sponsors can come in... You know, having to pay two, three, four million dollars to get on a bike, that doesn't sound too interesting if I'm a sponsor. You throw a couple hundred grand at it...
“What I'm saying is it's just so frickin' expensive! Superbikes even... Now you just got guys paying for rides. When I grew up you couldn't pay for a ride. Whenever I was in AMA and WSBK, that wasn't even an option. If you were fast and if you had the skill it was: 'Hey, come ride our bike and we'll pay you!”. So times have changed a little bit. It's tough... Erm, what was the question?!
“Oh yeah Superbikes! My thinking is they'll dumb it down and make it more of a Supersport thing. I don't know if they will, but the whole rumour mill is that they'll make it cheaper... Tape up the headlights, take the blinkers off and let's go!!”
This Texas Tornado Boot Camp of yours looks like fun. For those who haven't heard of it, what exactly is it? “I started it a couple of years ago. I've always wanted to teach because there are always people that want to learn how to go faster. So we built Texas Tornado Boot Camp. I learned from Kenny Roberts Sr that you can't go out on a road race track every day and practice, you just can't do it, feasibly, practically, money, tyres, bikes, it just isn't possible.
“So we built a big humongous training facility that's slick, red clay, flat as a pancake and we put street tyres on the back of smaller bikes and just go out there and get sideways and start learning how to play with your body on the bike!
“It's amazing to see. I still learn things. I go out there and still learn little things, so you can never stop learning and when we have 20 people that show up for a four-day camp and you see 100% improvement throughout the board, and everybody is happy and confident, it's amazing.
“What we teach translates directly to anything. Road racing, woods riding, motocross, anything, it doesn't really matter. And that's the one beauty of it. Oh yeah, and we shoot a lot of guns, and drink a few beers at night!!”
Your honest attitude and ability to laugh in most situations has endeared you to a lot of people. Where did that come from? “I had somebody talk to me in 1998, it was Neil Tuxworth who was my team manager at Castrol Honda WSBK at the time. I had a big issue at the time. I'd get pissed off if I didn't win, and if I won I was super excited, and I had won a race at Brands Hatch and nobody was really happy. Everybody was just normal, and I was like: 'This is weird!'. I'd just won a race and you wouldn't even know it.
“But his whole philosophy was don't get too high when you're high and don't get too low when you're low, just keep more of an even keel. When you get out there on the bike it's you and the track, it's all you can do, give 110%, but when we come back in we still have to pack up and go to the next race.
“That little talk kind of set me straight, because I had an issue with getting too high and too low, and that set me more straight. At the end of the day we're also out here having a good old time, and living my dream and everybody else's dream, what they want to do, and you can't be a miserable bastard just because you had a bad day! That's just not going to happen...”
Casting your experienced eye over the MotoGP paddock, who are the riders you've been most impressed by in the last year or two? “Obviously the one standout has been Marc Márquez, for sure. I would like to see Andrea Iannone on a big bike. I think Tom Lüthi, I don't know if it's time now or maybe give him another year, but there are some good kids out there.
“It's just filtering out the ones that want it. If you could really find the ones that want it... I've seen some kids that you'd think didn't have a whole lot of talent, but when you get them on the right package and they want it, they can perform. But I think the standouts, everybody sees them.”
And finally, how pumped are you that you've now got a GP on your own doorstep for 2013? “When I started riding in MotoGP in 2003, if you'd told me I was going to get in my own truck and drive to a Grand Prix, I'd have said you were crackers. I'm not going to drive to Laguna. But the reality that we're going to Texas... Wow!
“I just look forward to all my friends and family, everybody can actually come and not spend a couple of grand to get flights and hotels... So I'm excited about that and am really looking forward to it!”
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