MXGP World Champion Tony Cairoli has elected to contest the Grand Prix of Spain with KTM’s new factory 450SX-F and could use the AMA-title winning machine for the rest of the FIM Motocross World Championship as the Sicilian attempts to claim his seventh crown in a row in the premier class. Cairoli has left his 350SX-F, with which he has aced MXGP/MX1 every year since 2010, to one side in favour of the same motorcycle as used by Red Bull KTM team-mate Ken De Dycker.
‘222’ has cited the recent level of track preparations as one of the reasons for the change but also the increased potential of the 2016 450SX-F (due to be unveiled in production form for the first time later this month in Italy) and fresh motivation; undoubtedly to tackle rivals such as Max Nagl, Clement Desalle, Gautier Paulin and intermittently Ryan Villopoto.
“We were testing a lot with the 450 this winter and I felt the new bike was a lot better than the years before,” he commented. “I think we tested more with that bike than with the 350. In the end I chose the 350 to start the season because I was not 100% fit after the injury at the Motocross of Nations and my sensation was obviously good with that bike. It was a difficult choice because I was already thinking a lot about the 450 but in the end I went with the engine that I knew already for many years.”
“The tracks so far seem to be flatter and easier compared to other seasons,” added Cairoli who travelled to Talavera de la Reina for the sixth round of eighteen in the 2015 schedule with an improved feeling in his left hand after suffering a small fracture sustained at the Grand Prix of Europe in Holland two weeks ago. “There are more jumps but the technical level feels lower and the power of the bike is really important. I felt I had to push the limit of the 350 more to stay with the others. I tested the 450 again before Valkenswaard and then after I decided to go for the change…and for new motivation also: a new challenge. I haven’t tried for a championship on a 450 before. In 2009 we used what was a standard Yamaha. I want to find new limits.”
Cairoli won his very first MXGP (MX1) race as a wild-card at Donington Park in the UK in 2007 using a YZ450F and achieved his first title in 2009 with the same bike. Engine management and electronics have undoubtedly progressed in half a decade and the Italian indirectly admitted as much: “In 2007 the Yamaha was a really good bike but the KTM now is much stronger. I have the same engine as De Dycker and it is the strongest I have ever had. It is easy to ride and to control the power.”
The 350SX-F is still present in MXGP thanks to third Red Bull KTM rider Tommy Searle and Marchetti KTM’s Jose Butron. “The 350 was perfect and for sure is still good to win but at this time we have a really good 450 that feels very much like a 350!” Cairoli says. “There is much more torque and it will help me around the kind of tracks we have at the moment. On some flat pieces you can put down all the power without risking much. It is a good solution for the tracks we have now.”
