Niccolò Canepa: Fighting As If We're Japanese and Aiming for the Podium!

I was very happy we won the 24 Hours of Spa (Round 2 of the EWC season). It was a great race, and finally YART won a 24 Hours. For the past few years, YART has been the fastest most of the time, but we've had issues in the races. Bad luck has kept us from winning, but this time everything went well and we won.

It's the first time I've won a 24-hours race since I joined the team, so it's a first for both of my teammates as well. The lap times were very good and I'm really happy that I could help the team, since I set the fastest lap myself. Also, I think I'm one of the few riders to have won all three 24-hour races (Le Mans, Spa and Bol d'Or), and I think no other rider currently competing in the EWC has won all three.

We've had some hard times in the past few years. YART prides itself on being the number one team, but we've had many races where we couldn't finish, or couldn't win, and the atmosphere in the team wasn't great. But this year, we worked hard on the bike over the winter and that was the key to success. It resulted in a victory and that took a lot of the pressure off.

I think we've had a good start to the season with the win at Spa and the second place at Le Mans, but there are only four races in the EWC season, so we try to focus on each individual race rather than the title.

Suzuka is the only eight-hour race on the calendar this year. It's always a hard race and physically it's very demanding, but it's one of the most famous races, and it's great to be racing against the fastest riders out there on one of the most beautiful tracks in the world. To win here, or even to finish on the podium is something very special. We've never achieved it before and it's definitely one of the goals I want to achieve in my career.

In the pre-event joint test, the tire and engine specifications were different from what we've used in Europe, so the first step was to work on the bike setup. Next, we had to get used to the rhythm of Suzuka since it's a difficult track. Once we found the base setup for the bike, we worked on figuring out the fuel consumption and on our pace. We also got to ride in the wet, so we know we'll be ready for any kind of race conditions.

In the last two events, I took pole position and had a good pace, but at Suzuka all three of us have close lap times, so I don't need to aim for the track record or the fastest qualifying time. I need to always be consistent and I want to concentrate on race pace more than lap times.

Also because I'm the "veteran" of the team, I'm often given the important things to do in races. I'm used to difficult situations, having won two titles in the past myself, and I like the challenge of overcoming those. I'm at my best when I can help the team.

For a long time now, our team manager Mandy has been saying that a podium finish at Suzuka is the dream. Until last year that was true, but this year, I think we have everything in place, so a podium isn't the dream any more. Now it's something we need to achieve. The "dream" now is taking that next step and winning. So for us, I think the podium is the minimum target, and this year, without Jonathan Rea and some other factory riders participating, we should aim to beat last year's winner.

There are no Japanese riders in the YART team now, but we love Japan and when we race here in Suzuka, we'll fight as if we were Japanese, so please cheer for us in the race!