Q&A with Max Neukirchner
After two years in the Moto2 World Championship Max Neukirchner made his return to the eni FIM World Superbike Championship in 2013. Two-time race winner Neukirchner is racing a Ducati 1199 Panigale R of the MR Racing Team and he's seeking his old form in terms of performance in WSBK. After 6 of 15 rounds he holds on 12th place in the standings, which means he is the best positioned Ducati rider at the moment.
Max, after returning to the World Superbikes you had a quite good start into the season, scoring in every race so far. Goal accomplished?
"With not crashing and seeing the flag in every race one has to be satisfied, but generally speaking we are not pleased with the whole situation as such. We would love to show more of our potential, but our motorbike restricts us a bit".
Looking at the standings you are 12th at the moment and best Ducati rider.
"Well, this is due to scoring in every race, even when the works riders had some bad luck or sometimes didn't finish. We've been working constantly and that makes us happy. But we look at the whole situation with mixed feelings, as we know we could be better. We are unhappy with some things. The three main points would be the engine output, suspension and electronics, but I am confident to be better in those areas by the end of the year. At the moment we cross the line between 10 and 15, but our target would be 8 to 10. This would make us happy, that's where we want to be for now".
Your squad is a private team of Mario Rubatto. How much support do you get from Ducati?
"We may buy everything we want to. If there are new developed parts, we can buy them one, two or maximum three races later. Biggest difference between the factory team and us are the electronics, as we are using a completely different system. We also did not pay the lending fee of 80.000 Euros for the suspension but are using a 8.000 Euro front fork we own ourselves. Considering that, we are not that bad".
There are some spectacular race tracks coming up. Which of them do you like and what do you expect till the end of the season?
"We will approach 4 tracks which I don't know at all: India, Turkey, Moscow and Laguna Seca. Some of the others have been riding there last season or in the years before. This will be a tough challenge for me. I like Silverstone and Jerez and I am really looking forward to that. As I said, if we could finish between 8 and 10, with our team, I would be very happy this year. It's not as 'easy' as in 2007, when we had our own team but the electronic side didn't play such a role as nowadays. Other teams invest Millions on that and you can't make that up. But you never know: If on one track we get a real perfect weekend and get into the Top 5, we would celebrate that like a win".
