Danny Kent Does a Disappearing Act Only Three Rounds into The MotoGP World Championship
- Mikaela
- May 16, 2017
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 25, 2021
Danny Kent is a name that hasn’t been mentioned too much since he won the Moto3 World Title in 2015. Since then, he has been putting in the hard yards in the Moto2 Championship, or so we thought. The Americas Grand Prix in Austin, Texas only three rounds into the season, the struggling 23-year-old walked away from his bike, his team and the championship.
There were high praises for Danny Kent after taking the Moto3 title in 2015 and many were expecting great things to come. The transition into Moto2 wasn’t smooth, with Kent constantly struggling to get a good feeling on the bike. This led to tension between himself, his crew chief Peter Bom and the Kiefer Racing team.
Peter Bom played a very influential role in Kent’s Moto3 success, helping him to the 2015 world title. However, Kent felt Bom couldn’t keep up with the differences between Moto3 and Moto2, so he asked for a new crew chief. Danny Kent came into the 2017 season with Lucio Nicastro from the Dynavolt team as his new crew chief.
“After learning of Danny Kent’s situation in the World Championship, the team, Red Bull and KTM had the joint idea of asking him to test and develop our bike. Danny is a rider who has already been part of our team in the past; we know well how he works and he knows us, and we believe that with his experience he can give us a very interesting point of view for the technical development of our bike. In addition, what every rider needs is to compete, so we have offered him the possibility of a wildcard ride at Le Mans with us. I am convinced that the outcome of this collaboration will be very satisfactory for both parties.” Red Bull KTM Ajo Team Manager, Aki Ajo said on the decision.
Preseason testing for Kent was positive, he was pleased with the new Suter chassis as it provided him with more rear grip than that of the previous Kalex chassis. Despite the positive preseason Kent was almost non-existent when the season began. Round one in Qatar saw him leave with only three points and round two in Argentina saw him crash out of the race with nine laps to go.
At round three at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, Kent just couldn’t find the pace. Kent’s struggle was evident in his lap times never moving higher than 19th on the timing sheets. At one point Kent was almost 2 seconds off the pace of the leading riders. Unable to improve on his pace, Kent only became more frustrated. On Sunday 23rd April, Kent participated in the morning Moto2 warm up session, but when it came time to race he was nowhere to be seen.
Danny Kent took to Twitter to explain his absence from the race grid. Also getting into a few small arguments with fans over the matter.
The team manager of Kiefer Racing, Stefan Kiefer spoke to Dutch Motorsport. “Personally, I do not think this is correct, but that’s what he decided.” Later, issuing a press release discussing how the team could not understand the decision that Kent had made.
Although Kent ultimately felt that his team and his bike were not good enough for him, when you look at the statistics, they tell a different story. Danny Kent has previously appeared in the Moto2 in 2013 and over this time in the class, his best result was a 6th place in Qatar 2016. When looking at the statistics from 2013, 2016 and 2017 it is clear that Kent in unable to perform in Moto2. Considering that each time he has been on a different bike and the results are more or less the same, one has to stop questioning the ability of the bike and the team, and start questioning the ability of the rider.
There is no doubt that Danny Kent is a talented rider, but his commitment to improving himself and his mentality is debatable. When Kent walked from his team he was unable to pick up a ride from another Moto2 team because of this. Many of the teams had heard the rumours of Kent being more interested in texting his girlfriend or fixing his hair than putting in that extra bit of commitment.
“I believe that Moto2 has become a mental game for Kent, telling himself that he’s a world champion, that he knows best and that he is not the problem, when it seems he might just be.”, said Bill Nolan who has over twenty years of experience with motorsports.
Danny Kent at KTM Test in Jerez. (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
In a press release from Red Bull KTM Ajo on May 5th, they confirmed the rumours that Danny Kent would be testing their Moto3 KTM and will appear at the French Grand Prix as a wildcard in the Moto3 class.
On the decision to give Danny Kent this opportunity team manager, Aki Ajo had this to say. “We have offered him the possibility of a wildcard ride at Le Mans with us. I am convinced that the outcome of this collaboration will be very satisfactory for both parties.”
Danny Kent returns to the MotoGP World Championship this weekend, 19th-21st May in France at Le Mans.
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UPDATE
Danny Kent has done a more in-depth interview about the situation with Neil Morrison on Crash.Net, check it out here:
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