As the 2023 FIM Motocross World Championship was about to begin, Monster Energy Yamaha MXGP competitor Jeremy Seewer didn't mince words when speaking of the objectives he wanted to meet and the marks he wanted to hit in the upcoming season. He wanted to win.
“You don’t get any place on the track for free,” offered the Swiss-born racer who has been a Vice World Champion on four different occasions during his seven-year Grand Prix career. “Yes, this is my goal to win. Okay, I know I can’t win every race, but I want to be up there consistently and getting podiums and fighting for wins. I will see race by race. I definitely want to be in the mix and have the goal to win the world championship.”
Fast-forward to the present, and Seewer is currently slotted-in at third in MXGP points behind class front runner, Jorge Prado, (614 points) and Romain Febvre (510 points). Seewer has won the MXGP of France and placed inside the top five in all but one Grand Prix in 2023.
“Honestly, let’s say I feel a lot better than what the results show,” said Seewer, regarding holding third in points after twelve GPS so far in 2023. “This year I’ve been in good condition. I’ve felt good. I worked hard during the wintertime to be in really good shape and for some reason with many GPs, things didn’t really click for me, you know? There were always small things happening and there was a bit of bad luck and all sorts of other stuff, but overall I was still collecting points. Sometimes, though, I wasn’t collecting enough points and that was frustrating. I’m a bit too behind in the championship to be really satisfied and happy, but that’s my point of view."
Pure speed, tenacity and being absolutely perfect on race day are the racing attributes Seewer believes he will need to adhere to firmly if he stands any sort of hope in hell of grinding down Jorge Prado’s current 114-point championship lead.
“Yeah, it is consistency and speed that will matter,” pointed out Seewer. “I mean sure there are two or three strong racers right now. Okay, it is, like, me, Jorge Prado and Romain Febvre doing a little better than the others, but you can never make any mistakes because there are still three or four other guys being quite strong and being able to run our pace. Maybe not for the full moto, but still, the class over here is quite competitive.”
“And like I say, the best thing that I have, or the strongest tool I have is my consistency and I will be consistent to the last moto of the year where others will falter sometimes,” furthered Seewer. “At the beginning, most of the racers start strong, but then toward the end of the year they lose momentum. I don’t know if they lose focus, lose motivation, whatever it is, they lose something. I will always be the same toward the end or even better. I just want to keep pushing and keep working and getting better every weekend. I think this is what will make me strong for the last few races of the year.”
“You know it is never easy. Especially in Europe because the racing is so different in every country that we go to. We’ve also been racing in cold weather. Like when we raced in Switzerland earlier this season. It was freezing at night. And then the tracks are so much different everywhere we go to. We have sand tracks and hard tracks. Obviously in the GPs the craziest thing is that all of the tracks are so different from one another, you know? You also have to be in great shape and you have to deal with the pressure. Also now, we also have to now deal with a two-day weekend. That can be quite tiring. It’s a huge difference racing two days, especially now with the qualifying races having points. It’s like a lot tougher than it used to be. In the past if some guy was behind you pushing for P3, you were like, ‘Yeah, right. You can have it. I’ll follow you and see your lines and I’ll learn for tomorrow.’ Now it is more like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to let you pass because I need that point!’ it’s a whole different story now and that changed the whole weekend and makes everything a lot more intense than in the past, let’s say.”
Beginning with the MXGP of Flanders set for the gnarly sand of the Lommel circuit this Sunday in Belgium, there are seven Grands Prix rounds left to be run before the curtain comes down on everything at Matterley Basin, Great Britain, on September 24. Can Seewer, down 149 points on Jorge Prado, make a run at the Spaniard and take a serious swing at his first FIM Gold Medal?
“I mean if you are honest and the guy leading right now doesn’t do anything silly, I think it’s a fairy tale,” Seewer acknowledged. “But we know how racing works. It is never done until it’s actually really done. I mean, I will keep pushing and keep trying to collect as many points as possible and to win races and to get podiums. From there we will see at the end of the year. For sure it will be a fairy tale, but I will not say I will not give it my full effort anymore. That wouldn’t make sense. And I want to win. I want to win for the future and to build confidence and to get stronger. I do all that work because I know I am able to win.”
This weekend's MXGP of Flanders will run in the deepest and nastiest motocross sand track on Earth. The 11-time Grand Prix winner Jeremy Seewer hopes to go after top podium step number 12.
“I feel pretty good about Lommel this weekend. I’m living 10 minutes from the track most of the year. I ride there a lot and I’ve been racing there plenty of times. I actually feel good. It’s a sandy GP. That’s the opposite of what I grew up on. As a kid I did not do well in sand, but by now I adapted to it and I’m confident and I’m strong on that type of terrain. I’m looking forward to it. It’s kind of a home GP for me. It’s going to be good.”
Seewer will go to the starting gate at Lommel with a smile on his face as the 29-year-old veteran still absolutely loves what he does on any given Sunday, anywhere in the world.
“Yeah, I do love it,” nodded Seewer. “Sure, there are days that you wake up in the morning and you know you’re going to ride two 30-minute motos and you know down deep that it is hard work, you know? It’s not always sunshine and beautiful blue skies. There are days where you really put in the hard work, but even all of that is enjoyable. Over the long term, you feel good because you see the results and you see the progress. You can see the difference you can make with hard work and I do enjoy that, for sure.”
So can Jeremy Seewer make a run at the world championship that he has come oh-so-close to winning on four occasions? We straight up asked him.
“Yeah, for sure I will try," he said. "I will try and win the championship. As I mentioned before, I will try to win and get as many points and podiums as possible and to be up front battling with those guys who are all riding for the title. To win. That’s my goal. Race by race I will try to give it my everything at every GP and normally that’s good enough to be up front. We are working very hard right now and there is all the traveling coming up with Finland and Sweden and all of the other GPs, but I’m looking forward to all of them, to be honest.”
