A new season brings new form, new goals and fresh mindsets. One athlete with realigned objectives this weekend in Qatar for the 2017 MXGP FIM World Championship will be Britain’s top representative in the premier class, Shaun Simpson. The 28 year old Scot wears Yamaha colours for the first time since 2013 and that thrilling victory as a privateer at Lierop, Holland for the Grand Prix of Europe. After finishing seventh and then fourth in the world before an (usually) injury-perturbed tenth in 2016, Simpson is confident enough with his place and feeling in the Wilvo Yamaha ranks – the official satellite team in MXGP – to shoot for the very upper echelons of the division.

Traversing nineteen rounds, thirty-eight motos and fifty-seven starts (including qualification heats) means that the Scot’s dependable consistency to bank points and results will be vital for his designs on the top of the standings. “My consistency always seems to be a great asset and I’m going to count on that this year as usual but this season it’s more of a ‘start as you mean to go on’ sort of theme I’ve been painting and preparing for,” #24 said. “I want to start the season strong this year: top fives will be key early-on to be in the hunt later when the consistent results keep coming and I’ll be ready for the races I know suit me. Experience tells me that something feels different about 2017… watch this space.”

Simpson will commence his twelfth year of full-time Grand Prix in 2017 and as teammate to Arnaud Tonus in the Wilvo set-up that has seen a management change under the tutelage of Louis Vosters as well as a switch from MX2 to MXGP. The pair will not run similar machinery to factory Monster Energy Yamaha duo Romain Febvre and Jeremy Van Horebeek (their bikes miss the prototype electric start and YRRD parts) but have embarked on their own path of development.

Wilvo Yamaha will make their first steps as an MXGP squad this weekend and for the fifth occasion that Qatar has opened the Grand Prix slate. “I think it’s a great venue to start the season,” opined Simpson. “I haven’t talked to many riders that dislike the track; it’s actually one that I really look forward to. Losail means an organised set-up for a fly away in comparison to others that we attend…so that leaves me struggling to find a negative! I would say that for the first GP that it does lack atmosphere, a first GP in Europe would top it in that respect.”

Among others Simpson will be joined in MXGP by countrymen like Max Anstie (Rockstar Energy IceOne Husqvarna) and Jake Nicholls (Hitachi KTM) but 2016 British Champion Tommy Searle (Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki) will miss the Grand Prix due to a knee injury.