The new challenge awaiting Dominique Aegerter this year is in MotoE with the IntactGP team. His career in the World Championship started in 2007, in the 125cc class. In 2010 the Swiss rider moved to Moto2, the year of creation of the new category which took the place of the 250cc class. The 2013 and 2014 seasons were characterized by good performance and regularity. In both years, Aegerter finished 5th in the World Championship. Particularly positive was 2014, in which the Rohrbach rider conquered a total of four podiums and his first victory in the German GP at the Sachsenring. This year Aegerter splits his time between the MotoE and the role of Honda WSBK tester. After the first test of the MotoE in Jerez de la Frontera, Aegerter told us about his impressions on his debut in the new electric MotoGP class.
1 - What is your first impression of MotoE?
“The first impression was very good, it's a real racing bike. It is very different from a petrol engine bike: I come from Moto2 and I am also a Superbike test rider and when I arrived in Jerez I expected a little more power, but the bike is already fast enough, we were five - six seconds slower on the lap time than Moto2, which is a very good result.
The electric motor works very differently than a petrol engine, the accelerator is used much more in an on-off mode. There is a lot of speed in cornering and we can reach high lean angles (> 60° - Editor's note). I liked the tyres, which have excellent grip, and the power of the braking system."
2 - What was the feeling with the bike?
“The feeling was good even if the riding style for the MotoE it is something completely different; you can't say "it's like a 125cc" or "it's a MotoGP riding style". There is a lot of difference in power output compared to a traditional engine: here in fast corners you have little power while there is a lot of power in slow corners. It went well at Jerez and in the end I got the third best time but each track will be a story in itself. You have to adapt very quickly because you have a limited number of laps: the battery after eight or nine laps drops and overheats (causing a drop in power - Editor's note), so you don't have time to try much on the track."
3 - In Jerez, you ended 225 thousandths from the 2019 title winner; with a few laps available, where did you focus your efforts?
“Jerez was a nice surprise. After the first day it was seen that all the rookies were struggling much more than the riders of the 2019 edition. As I said before, you need to adapt quickly because you have three sessions where you can do about eight laps in each of them. It certainly helped me to have raced many times in Jerez and to have ridden many different bikes, but I also had the support of an excellent team, the IntactGP team. Last year they gained a lot of experience with Jesko Raffin. You can't change much on the bike: you can work on the motor brake and partly on the front and rear suspension set, but you can't change the geometry as in Moto2 where you can make a completely different bike with the same hardwere.
I was surprised how you don’t feel the weight of the bike (260kg). You can only feel it when braking in a straight line, when the front tyre starts to get a little stuck, but when you change direction or in corners you don't feel it at all. The power is good but, as I said, I expected a little more. In fast corners you can easily twist the accelerator to 100% but in slower corners you have to control the power with your wrist because there is no traction control. It's up to you to control, open the accelerator, then the rear tyre starts to slide and you have to control it. At low speed there is a lot of torque, in fact I have already tried to do some wheelies coming out of the pits."
4 - For all MotoE 2019 riders, the EPole is the key to getting good results in such short races; do you feel comfortable with this qualifying formula?
“Surely it is good to start from the front because it is a bit difficult to overtake and in addition the race is very short, it lasts six to eight laps. The Epole formula is something completely new for me because normally I go out and every lap I go faster until I reach my limit. In this case it's not possible, you have to get out of the pits and do a fast lap at full throttle; you have to take risks but you can't risk too much. If you fall or go off the track you start the race from the last row so it's up to you to find the best compromise."
5 - What do you think of the MotoE as a category?
“It is a very interesting class with very good riders; I thank the IntactGP team for giving me this opportunity. Last year, at the first race, everyone in the paddock was intrigued by MotoE and you know, everyone here has a little bit of fuel in their blood. Most of them smiled when they talked about electric bikes, but in the first race everybody followed the Epole, it was interesting and exciting. I couldn't see the races directly because of the Moto2 commitment, I watched them on TV and TV, where you can't hear the noise anyway, it wasn't strange at all. I saw a lot of good actions from the riders, overtaking, fighting; this is the important thing It is good for MotoE to be able to be part of MotoGP because you have a good organization, a great visibility, the best tracks and the maximum safety.
This class in many years could become the future but for me, after this experience, I would like to return to a motorbike with a petrol engine, I would like to have more power and also the noise because, well, I have some petrol in my blood too. But that doesn't mean that I won't ride MotoE at the maximum; my goal for this year is to be at the top and give the people a great show."
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