Niccolò Canepa is one of the eighteen riders who took part in the first historic edition of the MotoE World Cup, racing with the Ego Corsa of the LCR E-Team by Lucio Cecchinello. But before going through his words on this experience, however, we must remember another historic feat made by Canepa this year: the victory of the World Endurance Championship race in Sepang. On the Malaysian track, the Italian rider raced for three consecutive hours stopping only to refuel his Yamaha R1 and change tyres. A unique feat in the history of modern motorcycling. Returning to the MotoE World Cup, these are Canepa's words after his first experience in the MotoGP electric class.
1 - Niccolò, what is your balance after this first year in MotoE?
“Let's say I'm happy, but only partially happy. I have made great progress during the season until I fought for the podium, at Misano, and I am very happy about that (Canepa was in second position with three corners to go, but he crossed the line in fourth position - ed). But for sure in 2020 I want to do better and be a protagonist in all races."
2 - Over the season, how did you adapt to this new category?
“At the beginning it was very difficult so I tried to understand as much as possible how other riders managed to go faster and I changed my riding style step by step. From mid-season onwards, I got very close to the first ones."
3 - In your opinion, what is the key to a good result with such short races?
“The position on the starting grid is the key point. The E-Pole is a very difficult qualifying formula but if you can make a good lap and start in the first two rows, the race changes."
4 - In MotoE we have seen many overtaking right away, what do you think about that?
“t's been nice to have some spectacular races full of overtaking. The bikes are all the same and because of this the races were very close. For the riders it was also very funny and I'm sure it was fun for the public as well!"
5 - What are your expectations for next year?
“During the winter tests I want to do some tests on different settings to find out a bit more about the behaviour of Energica's bike. We have a lot of ideas, but during the race weekend the time available to test was very little (in 2019 there were only two Free Practices for each GP and in each the riders were able to do 10-12 laps before the battery ran out - editor's note). At some point we found a set-up that worked well and we didn't want to change anything anymore for fear of taking the wrong path and compromising the whole weekend. In 2020 I'm still expecting a lot of hard-fought races like this year, but I want to be the a key player!"
For those who love numbers, in the “telemetry data" you can find the performances of Niccolò Canepa in the various races of the MotoE World Cup 2019. These data are not normally disclosed by the teams, so we would like to thank Lucio Cecchinello's LCR E-team for providing us with the information needed to create this important section.
