Webb motivated by Mahindra challenge

Article from http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/Webb+on+Mahindra+challenge

Following his official presentation as a Mahindra Racing rider at the Indian team’s launch in Mumbai last week, Danny Webb is setting himself up for a fifth season in the 125cc class. The Brit, who will ride alongside German youngster Marcel Schrötter in the newly formed team, is excited at the prospect of representing Mahindra in its debut season in the World Championship as he explained to motogp.com.
“I’ve been looking at Mahindra in recent years and they’ve seemed to succeed at everything they’ve done, so that gave me a very positive boost about the whole thing,” said Webb. “When we went out to India for the team press launch last week it gave me an even better feeling about how they’re working and how the team’s going to be. The bike is looking pretty good at the moment and now I’m really excited about getting the season started.”
The challenge of assisting with the development of the new machine is one Webb has enjoyed. “We’ve done a lot of development on the bike throughout the winter, and it’s looking pretty good up against some other competitive bikes in the field. Of course we won’t be able to tell until we’re out on track though. We’ve been doing factory work because of the Testing ban, which hasn’t played into our hands because we needed to be out on the bike as much as possible, but they are the rules. They’re working as hard as possible on the bike and we’ve gone through a lot, including wind tunnel testing which has all gone extremely well.”
In terms of his own personal physical preparations, Webb has been training hard to ensure he is in top shape for what will be a highly important pre-season.
“I’d say I’m the fittest I’ve ever been now,” he said. “Towards the end of last season I had a few injuries but they’ve all healed now. I’ve been working hard, it’s going to be a tough season and I need to be at the top of my game. I’ve been training with local rugby players, and one of my friends from the marines as well. It’s all been pushing me even harder and has been worth it, and I feel fighting fit and ready to go now.”
Webb will get his first on-track experience of the Mahindra 125cc bike at the official Test at Valencia in a fortnight, and is aiming high for the forthcoming season. “I would like to pick up where I left off in 2010, comfortably in the top 10 and then hopefully we can push into the top five. It will be very hard work trying to get up there, but if we can all put hard work and effort in we can do that.”
“My team taught me a lot last year and I think we can take my feedback from the past four years of riding, and then transfer it to this new bike. We have quite a bit of experience behind us now so for sure we can work hard and transform the bike,” he concluded.