Hanika insists YART EWC team will “come back stronger”

Karel Hanika came up with the perfect response to YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC’s early exit from the 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or last month. Hanika and team-mates Niccolò Canepa and Marvin Fritz arrived at Circuit Paul Ricard hoping to lead YART to the FIM Endurance World Championship for Teams. Instead, an early technical issue wrecked the Austrian squad’s title hopes and left it sixth in the final standings, prompting Hanika to target future success.

Ad “It is hard to put into words how I feel,” said Czech rider Hanika. “I only got to do one stint, and that went really well. It is such a shame, as for the first time this season, we were leading early in the race and controlling the gap to our rivals. We were comfortable, I was not pushing to the limit to preserve the engine, and I could even do an extra lap in my stint than was scheduled.

We were in the provisional championship lead, but then, unfortunately, we had a technical issue that forced us to retire.” FIM EWCEWC remembers Chrissy RouseYESTERDAY AT 04:05 Hanika, who set the pole lap for the 24 Heures Motos and 24H SPA EWC Motos, continued: “I am gutted for the whole team, as we deserved a much better result and had a real chance to win the title. I want to thank the whole team for their incredible work all season. Our results do not reflect our pace and potential, and we are already working on the plans to come back stronger in 2023.” The 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans is set to open the 2023 EWC season from 13-16 April, subject to final FIM confirmation.