For nearly two decades, Peter Clifford has been helping uncover next-gen GP stars. But spotting speed is just the beginning
For almost 20 years, Peter Clifford has helped identify and develop the young guns of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. And when it comes to learning the craft, his message is refreshingly simple: eventually you have to ride the bike you’ve got.
Few people are better qualified to spot and guide young racing talent than Clifford. Why? Because he’s been a racer himself, ran his own 500cc GP team and, somewhere in between, worked as a journalist and commentator in GP racing. So, if a kid has something special, chances are Clifford and his team will spot it.
The current MotoGP grid contains plenty of former Red Bull Rookies – Pedro Acosta, Jorge Martin and Joan Mir among the most famous. Going right back to the early years, what’s the first name that springs to mind?
Our first Cup champion was Johann Zarco. And so it’s great to see Johann still at the front of MotoGP.
How many Rookies have actually made the move into the GP paddock?
From all the riders on the grid in all three classes, there are 76, and 51 of those are ex-Rookies. So that is 67.11 per cent, to be precise.
Riders have to be selected for the Rookies Cup. How does that process work?
We invite about 120 riders to the selection event. They’re split into groups, from which we filter the best to come back the next day, and then the day after that. Then we make the final selection. And we can get it wrong, you know. I’ll tell you what, there was a guy we turned down at selection who later went on to win several Moto2 races.
Once a rider is selected, what do they and their family have to organise?
Well, to put it simply, when they walk into the paddock, everything is organised. Their helmets from HJC, the leathers – which are the latest Tech-Air suits – gloves and boots from Alpinestars, the bike from KTM, the tyres from Pirelli, the fuel, everything. All they have to bring with them is a mechanic/helper. That might be dad or a friend or, you know, in the case of Alejandra Fernandez, her brother is the mechanic.
And these helpers aren’t necessarily full-time technical mechanics. Instead, they help the rider clean the bike, take the wheels out to change the tyres, put the fuel in; that sort of thing.
In a one-make championship for talented kids, how far do you go in setting up each bike individually?
Yeah, it is a stock bike, so there are disadvantages, of course. If the rider is too light, they have to add weight, for example. But as the age regulation has gone up, we don’t have many riders who are underweight now. It’s not like it used to be when they were 13 and 14 years old – now they have to be 15.
And kids are getting bigger too, so we do have quite a few riders who are on the big side for these bikes.
But that’s becoming the case in Moto3 too, which is the class they’re all looking to get into, right?
Exactly. And although the teams can modify those Moto3 bikes more than we can, some riders are still physically big for them nowadays. On our Rookies bikes, we are limited. We can work a bit with the suspension, but we make sure we keep it within reasonable bounds so the rider doesn’t ask for something we know is going to cause them trouble.
But as you know, wherever they go, eventually on the Sunday you have to ride the bike you’ve got and get the best out of it.
There have been some very promising Rookies Cup champions who later failed to make the same impression in Moto3 or Moto2. Why do you think that happens?
Sometimes we’ve had champions who were quite special, and very often they then get a good ride in Moto3. But sometimes it doesn’t work. Way back, when Karel Hanika won the Rookies Cup, he was an amazing talent, but it didn’t work in Moto3. Later there was Can Oncu, who after winning the championship entered the last round as a Moto3 wildcard in Valencia – and won! Youngest-ever Grand Prix winner at only 15!
But they’re teenagers and they’re changing as people. So they might leave us as Cup champions thinking, “Oh, I’m wonderful, and if I’m not winning then for sure it must be because of the bike.”
We also get riders who come to us like that. They’ve won the Northern Talent Cup or the British championship or the Asian championship. They come to us thinking, “I’m a Cup champion.” Well, suddenly it’s a shock because everybody around them here is a real talent.
We’ve all seen that. I think sometimes they can’t adjust to the amount of effort they need to put in. Maybe it was too easy for them to win their previous cup and suddenly they can’t make that extra effort.
Finally, how is Australian Archie Smith doing?
Really good. He’s in his rookie year, he’s got something and so we’d love to give him a chance. We know it’s not going to be easy, but we think he can make the best use of the opportunity. Of course he’s got to continue improving, but his commitment – and the family’s commitment – wants for nothing.
