Husky - The Growth

The 2015 season has been an excellent one for the Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory team until now. Their rider Max Nagl has won three of the five GP’s to date and continued to bring something special to the sport. Always relaxed and under control the German rider holds the red-plate for the MXGP class and is in the form of his life.

What is interesting is the fact that the Husqvarna effort has dominated their big brother, the Red Bull KTM Factory team. Obviously this isn’t a major problem for KTM, as the MXGP series is young, and KTM’s lead rider Antonio Cairoli can never be counted out.

For Husqvarna though they keep their feet on the ground and concentrate on being the best they can be. Team manager Antti Pyrhonen, a former GP racer is enjoying the team structure in 2015.

“We started this in 2013,” Pyrhonen said. “We wanted to improve and get more professional. We have a really good team, people who are similar in their ideas and the relationship between myself and Max is really good. I think our whole team remain sensible in the challenge ahead and that we are trying to win the MXGP races and GP’s that doesn’t change. It is a pleasure to work with Max and the other riders.”

Pit Beirer the KTM’s sport director while excited for the improvement of the Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory team, he is also careful in how the Husky brand should be grown.

“We have this new brand in our family,” Beirer told.” Of course we have created a new group of people, and they want to win and this might cause some friction in the future. It is also a little dangerous, because we (KTM) know how to win, but you can’t just copy and paste everything from KTM for Husqvarna. Some things need time. We developed KTM over 15 years, so you can’t hand that to Husqvarna in three months. It is good to see that Husqvarna are having success, but the big target it to have also a junior structure with the Husqvarna side, so young Husqvarna riders will win in the future. We don’t want to rip everything out of KTM to be successful on the Husky side.”

The biggest winner in this whole improvement with Husqvarna is of course their lead rider Max Nagl, how is clearly happier under the Husqvarna tent where there is maybe less pressure to perform and a more relaxed attitude.

“For sure,” Nagl said. “It helps a lot (less pressure). First of all there is no pressure from the team or anybody around me. It’s the best team I have ever ridden in. I am so happy and so comfortable with this team, especially with Antti. The riders are so relaxed and there is no bullshit around, some of the other teams have that and my team doesn’t have that and that makes it a lot easier for me.”

The Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory team will head to Talavera in Spain in a little over a week’s time with the confidence that they are the team controlling the MXGP series, but they will also go there with a smile and a relaxed attitude to enjoy the weekend and have fun.