Frustrated McPhee struggling to find setup solutions

Mugello was another difficult race for John McPhee with the Scotsman finishing outside the points for the second consecutive race. With a new Ohlins engineer on board the Racing Team Germany rider was able to make progress in finding a solution to the setup problems that have plauged him and his teammate, Alexis Masbou, all year. However the changes weren’t enough for McPhee to make a big step forward at Mugello.

“It was a tough race and in some ways it was another weekend wasted for us,” said McPhee. “No points on the table. It’s quite frustrating you know, we’re putting everything into it 100 percent and I’m really pushing on every lap. We’re just not really getting anywhere. We’re still struggling with the bike and the set-up.

“Masbou and his guys managed to make a step forward for the race. It looks like they’ve maybe come to a direction so maybe we’ll try that direction in Barcelona and see if we can make a step forward. At the minute there’s not much more I can do. I’m putting everything into it and the results aren’t really coming. We’ll keep on pushing on. We won’t give up and we’ll come back stronger for Barcelona.”

When pressed as to what were the major issues with the bike McPhee commented that while the bike is working well in slow corners it’s a struggle to get the bike turned into faster corners and as a result of this difficultly he’s struggling to hold his line through the corner. 

“It is close but in Moto3 racing you need to have a bike that you can fight people with, you can pass people with and hold your line with. I could do the lap time in the race but I was having to ride in a different way. I was having to brake a little early and prepare for the corner exit. As soon as you’re around anybody they just stuff it up your inside. I mean I could run the lap times but just not fight and push my way forwards.”