What is going wrong for Enea Bastianini?
2017 is supposed to be the year when Enea Bastianini soared to the Moto3 World Championship.
Yet despite possessing the bike, team and the experience needed to piece together a challenge he has so far fallen short of expectations.
The 19-year-old Italian has yet to register a point for his new Estrella Galicia Honda team and, while it may be too early to jump to conclusions, there is a suspicion the Italian has not clicked with his new Spanish team.
Team boss Jordi Arquer believes a host of factors are currently working against Bastianini, who finished runner up in the 2016 championship; a difficulty in adapting to the 2017 chassis and the squad's rigid 'methods' high among them.
Coming from the Italian Gresini team, Bastianini appears to have struggled to acclimatise to the working practices of his new surroundings, with Arquer suggesting training, timekeeping and communication are all playing a part in the Italian's current downturn.
"We knew it would not be something that would work from one day to another," Arquer told Crash.net. "His situation has been longer than what we expected. I mean, there is not just one reason. Right now there are many reasons that are not making Enea feel confident with the bike.
"Some riders have been adapting better to the 2017 chassis, some riders less. For example, Aron immediately felt the new chassis was feeling better for him. Enea has not been like this.
"He's lacking confidence, especially on the front part of the bike. Enea is a rider that has the potential to always brake very late. It's what he's used in races and qualifying to make his lap time. This feeling, this year he's not happy with this.
"[Also] We have a pyramid of riders from eleven years old. They gather some knowledge in the team. We know each other. We work and know how they are. We get experience with them.
"Then it's easier when we have a rider like Aron [Canet], who, when he comes to the GP team, is already in the family and knows how we work. When you have a rider that's coming from another place, already with experience, always it's more difficult to make these things work, you know?"
Having hinted at his new rider's difficulty in taking to the team's highly structured approach, Arquer went on to describe the team's working methods, which are aimed to reflect those seen in MotoGP teams.
"It's a general method. [Like] When you are at home, the training you do, how you organise the training. What communication he has with the staff of the team that help you to organise this training at home. What discipline to do in one period and what discipline to do in another.
"Also, it's how we work at the track outside the box. For example, at every race we give the riders a timed schedule of the whole weekend. Maybe in Moto3 this is something that is not very usual. But it's something the MotoGP guys do.
"So we try to give a system that is as professional as possible, as close to MotoGP as possible, so the riders get used to working in the way they need for when they arrive at that level. We also do it with out technicians: the way they work; the plans they make every morning; how we will structure a session, like how many laps we will use this [set-up] - everything is organised. Not all teams work like this.
"We don't think it's the best way. It's simply our way. It's something that we also give to the riders of our junior team. We try to give the same method to a twelve year old kid as a 16 or 18 year old kid.
"The pyramid, when they start in all categories using the same method and they arrive to the world championship, they already feel like they are ready to win the world championship.
"When you have someone coming for another place - even though we are very flexible and we adapt as much as possible - sometimes it's a little bit difficult to get working. Also someone said we are too strict but it's totally the other way.
"We have to understand the needs of the rider but also try to explain to him what is the best for him at this moment, and what will be the best for him to learn now that will be applied in the future."
What's more, getting Bastianini up to speed straight away during a race weekend has been a challenge, with the Italian a typical Sunday racer, that does not always qualify well.
"Enea is also a rider that really likes racing on Sunday. We're also trying to teach him as much as we can to understand the necessity to really push hard, 100 percent from the beginning, in a free practice to get the bike ready for qualifying, to push in the qualifying to have the bike ready for a race."
CLICK HERE for the full exclusive interview with Jordi Arquer.
