Lorenzo suffering confidence crisis
Added on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Lorenzo has managed just two finishes in the last six rounds.
Jorge Lorenzo has admitted that he is no longer the rider that he was at the start of the season after a series of crashes left a huge dent in his confidence.
The MotoGP rookie stole the headlines at the start of the season as he secured four podiums from the first five races, including a win in Estoril but the 21-year-old’s fortunes have since taken a turn for the worse, having picked up just two sixth place finishes from the last six rounds.
Following a crash in Shanghai which led to the Spaniard suffering from two broken ankles, Lorenzo has failed to finish at Murgello, Germany and Laguna Seca in addition to missing the Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona through injury.
That has seen Lorenzo slip out of title contention this season and the Yamaha rider admits that his confidence has been severely dented after recent results.
“Circumstances have changed. Unfortunately I’ve had too many consecutive crashes and these have caused me to be afraid of the bike, I’m not the same person I was at the beginning of the season,” he told Motosprint.
“At this competitive level, if you are a bit afraid of the bike and lose just a little bit of confidence, then you are finished. Normally I’m not afraid of crashing and getting injured but now I’m in a crisis and I’m working towards getting rid of this fear.
“The best solution is to spend time on the bike and to ride it always in the best possible way so I can regain the confidence and understand that it isn’t as dangerous as I think it is now. It is a dangerous sport but when a rider has confidence in himself and his bike, he can manage the relationship with danger. I must get back to this condition.
“I crashed in China and hurt myself a lot. A Le Mans I crashed twice with my ankles broken already. I crashed once more at Mugello and finally at Barcelona, where I hurt myself badly because I banged my head. At that point I told myself ‘I can’t carry on this way, crashing so violently over and over again’.”
Lorenzo believes that his exuberant start to the season has led to his current problems, believing that he needs to take a more conservative approach to the rest of the season.
“At times I went too quick in comparison to the conditions of the corner, the bike, and the tyres. You usually see the slower riders crashing because a slow rider goes only 20 per cent in one corner and 100 per cent in another, and neither is good. It’s important to realise you need to go more consistently but within the limits, not beyond 95 per cent at every corner of every track.
“To always go at 100 per cent is almost impossible. You can do a corner at 100 per cent but not an entire race. I must learn to understand where and when I can risks. I must start going a bit slower.
“When you start the season with three poles, you’re always on the podium, and you win your third race, you think ‘I can go a lot quicker than I’ve been before’ and I thought I had a confidence that I didn’t really have. Now I need to find the point in between, I had too much confidence before and I have too little now.”
