Portugal MotoGP round beginning of the end for one legendary team owner

This weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix marks the beginning of the end of Herve Poncharal’s illustrious MotoGP career as owner of the Tech3 team.

The French outfit will be taken over from January of next year by a consortium led by former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner.

It marks a significant changing of the guard at Tech3, which has been owned and helmed by the larger-than-life Herve Poncharal since it was founded in 1990.

Beginning life in the 250cc class, Tech3 won the 2000 world championship with Olivier Jacque a year into its partnership with Yamaha.

From 2001, Tech3 stepped into MotoGP and competed as a Yamaha satellite until the end of 2018, before switching to KTM from 2019.

With KTM, Tech3 became a MotoGP winner for the first time in 2020 with Miguel Oliveira, who took two grand prix victories that season.

Poncharal was also a long-time president of the International Race Teams’ Association, which was a role he held until earlier this year when he was replaced by LCR team boss Lucio Cecchinello.

Poncharal will be “overwhelmed by powerful emotions”

This weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix - which Tech3 won in 2020 - will mark Poncharal’s penultimate round in charge of his team, and he admitted in an interview with Italy’s GPOne that it will be an emotional few weeks.

“Grand Prix racing has been my life for almost half a century,” he said.

“And when you dedicate your heart and all your energy to a particular project - and I’m not just talking about racing on the track, but also about the company that has grown steadily and with many long-term employees who form the heart of the business - then it’s tough to say goodbye.

“It’s a heartbreaking scenario. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has called me several times recently and reassured me, ‘You’re not my friend, you’re my brother’.

“He didn’t say goodbye, because we’ll still see each other sometimes in the future. But my adventure as team owner ends on 16 November in Valencia.

“That will be a very emotional event. I don’t want to say it’s going to be sad, because I’ve given this decision a lot of thought.”

He added: “Now I’m closing a chapter in my life, but this extensive period alone could fill an entire book.

“I hope I’ll be strong enough to appear with a smile and try to hide my emotions a little. But, deep down, I know I’ll be overwhelmed by powerful emotions.”