Speaking separately to
Crash.net, Poncharal admitted there was some risk in signing Toseland, particularly after having had a tough 2006 season with James Ellison, but couldn't hide his enthusiasm at what had been achieved so far.
"Sometimes I don't know if I can say exactly what I feel because you might think I'm being too positive, but honestly I'm really happy with this test - for the team, for Colin and for James," began the Frenchman. "Although you always think you made the right rider choice, you never know for sure and James also took a risk by making the switch.
"He could have stayed in Superbike and had an easy life, hopefully winning some more titles, making money, being a hero and being famous etc - but he has decided to try something very different.
"So there were some question marks for both of us, but I'm so relaxed now because he has done really well. He approached it the right way, which is the humble way. He didn't come here as a star saying 'I'm going to show you what I can do'. After day one he told me 'everything I know I need to forget and relearn'. Everything is so different here. He took it step by step and never pushed too hard.
"I think he's found out that the amount of focus that you need for every single race lap on a
MotoGP bike is like the focus you need for one qualifying lap on a Superbike. It's so easy to make a mistake.
"I'm really happy because the main target with James was to give him the feel of the bike, of the team and come out of here with a MotoGP rider. We came here with a Superbike rider, a world champion, and we'll go to the next test with a proper MotoGP rider already.
"He's been lapping in race conditions, fuel and tyres, really fast and now we can really start to work. I'm amazed to have done all that in three days because we've been with riders coming from SBK before and for sure the switch is not easy.
