You’re known as an aggressive rider – was that exacerbated last year by the fact that you had to ride differently to everyone else?
I’ve always been quite aggressive but last season especially, because if I got mixed up in the swing of what the other guys were doing it got difficult, because I couldn’t ride the way I needed to, so I lost time.
I found that if I got to the front and rode the bike the way it needed to be ridden it made life hard for the guys behind me, because they couldn’t pass and if they did pass me it was quite easy for me to pass them back on the brakes
Where I was fast they were slow and where I was slow they were fast. It was a recipe for disaster, so I had to mix it up a bit.
I remember riding into poor Marcel Schrötter four times at the start of the year and not once did I even imagine it happening, but it was just that our riding styles were two completely different things and we ended up clashing, so I’m sorry about that that.
Tell us how you got started in racing.
When I was a kid I wanted to race motocross, so dad got me a motocross bike, and my brother [Darryn] wanted to go karting, so he got my brother a kart.
We went to try the kart first, I tried it and said I want one, so we both ended up karting for a couple of years. Then as soon as I was old enough we started racing 50cc bikes, on proper tracks like Kyalami and Phakisa. I had a Yamaha TZR50 and I won my first championship in 2005.
When did you first come to Europe?
When I was 12-years-old I went over to England and did a couple of races in the Aprilia Superteen series. I did one at Brands Hatch and one at Donington, which was the curtain-raiser for the 2007 MotoGP round. That was my first time at a GP, it was cool. Then I managed to get into the Red Bull Rookies the year I turned 13.
Did you move to Europe when you were in the Rookies?
No, we were traveling back and forth, which wasn’t too bad, because there weren’t too many Rookies races. Then as soon as I started in Moto3 [in 2012] my mum and I started living in Spain, while my dad went home more often.
Presumably your parents had to pay for your Moto3 ride?
Yeah, my old man had to buy my ride for the first year. My dad’s got a company in South Africa, so we are fortunate enough. I wouldn’t say we had the money, because for it was a massive financial ask – 250 grand, 300 grand [in Euros] – something like that.
My second season in Moto3 I was lucky enough to get a free ride. I was really fortunate because it’s not often someone manages to find a free ride in their second year. I joined the Ambrosio team and they really looked after me, so I was lucky.
I suppose your breakthrough moment was your first GP win, when you won the 2016 Jerez Moto3 race from the back of the grid?
That was nice – good memories! It really sets the tone for a good year. It was something that made me feel, okay, I’d managed to win from the back of the grid, so even on the weekends I struggled I’d say to myself, I’ve done it before, so for sure I can do it from the second or third row. Mentally it was a real boost.
When did you have your first ride on KTM’s MotoGP bike?
I rode the bike at Brno last summer. I managed to get 30 laps. It was so cool, it was awesome. I had more fun in those 30 laps than I had all year.
How fast were you?!
I wasn’t really almost at all, to be honest, it was just a bit of a shakedown test. Basically I made a deal with Pit [Beirer, KTM’s motor sport director] that if I won a Moto2 race he would give me a ride on the big bike. So it was just a spin, take it for a few laps and enjoy it. I had so much fun on the thing.
Then during the tests at Valencia and Jerez I was feeling more and more comfortable on the bike, just doing a lot of laps.
I got a good taste for it, but I’ve still got an incredibly long way to go. I think I’ve got a lot to think about now in the off-season and hopefully we can try to make a step at Sepang in February.
I think I just need to improve my riding; my feeling with the front a bit and just being able to have confidence to put the bike where I want to, especially in the entry to corners. I think once I get that right the rest will fall into place.