INTERVIEW I KEVIN SCHWANTZ
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ship? "I don't think he's there right
now," Schwantz opined. "I think
he's working to get back to that
championship-caliber guy that we
had last season. There have been
a couple of times Rins has got in
front and ridden away from him.
And more often than not Rins has
ended up on the ground. [Joan] is
there, 100 percent. I think maybe
the bike's not there 100 percent.
And because [together] they're
both not 100 percent, he hasn't
got that extra Joan Mir in him that
we saw some of the time last year
late in the races, going to the
front."
Another stand out feature from
his own career was Schwantz's
near miraculous recoveries from
injury. He finished fourth in the
1992 Hungarian Grand Prix three
weeks on from breaking his left
arm and dislocating his left hip in
that collision with Eddie Lawson at
Assen. Two years later he cracked
the scaphoid in his left wrist on
the Thursday of the Dutch TT only to finish
fifth 48 hours later. And the final of his 25
premier class wins was one of his finest: his
1994 British GP success came in spite of
complications to that same wrist injury, as
well as bruises suffered in a monumental
qualifying highside crash. His fighting spirits
brought at least one team member to tears
that day.
How has Schwantz assessed Marquez's
comeback from his career-threatening in-
jury? "You know, with the exception of some
of those big Friday crashes he had, I didn't
think he was being quite cautious enough,"
Schwantz said. "You get back and you think
you feel 100 percent. But you haven't been
on the bike, and you haven't been racing at
Mir's season
hasn't been
one of his best,
according to
Schwantz. "I think
he's working to
get back to that
championship-
caliber guy that
we had last
season."
Quartararo is a
deserving champion,
says the Texan.
