Nicolas Goubert: “We asked Ducati to be ready for March 2023”

A former leading figure at Michelin for many years, Nicolas Goubert has held the position of executive director of the MotoE World Cup since 2018. The 2022 calendar should include no less than 14 races spread over seven events MotoGP. This next year will also be the last for Energica, the only manufacturer in the category, before the arrival of Ducati the following year. We therefore met the Frenchman to go over these new features.

The third season of the MotoE World Cup ended a few months ago, what is your assessment?

“Our goal is to show the public that racing is as fun and engaging to watch as MotoGP or other renowned categories. Over the years, our races have become more and more competitive. We see that the drivers are gaining confidence and there are an impressive number of overtakes; at every turn something happens. There was also terrible suspense until the end of the calendar... For us, it's great and we are very happy to have obtained this result. »

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Next year, the calendar includes 14 races spread over seven events, can you tell us a little more?

“Since our beginnings, there has been one more event per year. We started with four meetings, five in 2020 and six this year. Next year, all races will be doubled. Generally, there were two races at the end of the season to maintain the suspense and distribute more points. The races are short and this will also give us a little more visibility. We will also change the qualifying format. »

So is this the end of the E-Pole?

“The first years, we opted for the Superpole type format: the E-Pole (the drivers pass one after the other and have one lap to make their time). This format gives visibility to the entire platform. For 1 minute 30 minutes, each driver appears on screen. Since there will now be two races, we believe there is no longer any need to impose this format. At the same time, we also found that it was rather difficult to organize and quite hazardous, particularly when the weather conditions were unstable. We were lucky, we never needed to cut E-Pole short to restart a standard qualifying session. We were also told that it was a bit long. We therefore made the decision to return to a more “classic” format and to follow the other categories with a Q1 and a Q2. Each session will last 10 minutes (with a 10 min break) and the two fastest drivers from Q1 will advance to Q2. »

Why wait before communicating the schedule?

“We want our calendar to leave the possibility for riders to participate in MotoE, World Supersport or the World Championship at the same time.Endurance. The WorldSBK/WorldSSP calendar was revealed last week and even if the endurance calendar is not yet known, we already know a few dates. We are finalizing ours and I think we will be able to publish it next week. »

2022 will be the last season for Energica before the arrival of Ducati in 2023, what are the stages of this transition?

“With two races per weekend and different qualifying, the 2022 season will already be a major change for MotoE. Regarding the bike, obviously we can't expect drastic changes. For its part, Ducati will launch the development of its machine for 2023 and begin track tests to be ready for 2023. We asked Ducati to be ready for March 2023. Among the main lines of the specifications, we want continue doing 15 min runs. We don't want to go down in autonomy and we also don't want to do longer races at the expense of the performance and weight of the bikes. They were clearly asked to keep the same race format while working on the weight of the bike. In terms of times, being competitive with Moto3 suits us very well. It's up to them to decide if they want to be faster. The challenge is to do 15-minute races that are suitable for all the circuits on the calendar and to make a bike that is a little lighter than the one we have today. Nor do we expect miracles; the technologies linked to electricity today will not allow them to develop such a high-performance 160 kg motorcycle. »