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Dorna explains British Talent Team's Moto3 hiatus

Dorna Talent Promotion Director Alberto Puig says the large step up from the soon-to-launch British Talent Cup to Moto3 is the reason why the British Talent Team is taking a year out of the world championship.

John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
Third place John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
Adam Norrodin, SIC Racing Team, John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team
John McPhee, British Talent Team

It was announced last weekend at Sepang that the Dorna-run squad, which has fielded a single Honda in Moto3 for John McPhee this season, will not return to the lightweight class grid in 2018.

Instead, it will support British youngsters Tom Booth-Amos and Charlie Nesbitt in the Spanish-based CEV Moto3 series, while McPhee switches to the CIP KTM squad with Dorna's backing.

Puig said the decision was made to temporarily drop out of Moto3 so that more resources could be devoted to developing the next generation of young British riders and bridge the gap between the British Talent Cup - which begins next year - and world championship level.

"For next season, we understand that to take the best of the British Talent Cup, the step to come to Moto3 is quite big," explained Puig.

"So we prefer to concentrate our efforts and resources first on the FIM Junior World Championship [CEV Moto3] and to spread a little bit more the support that we give in this championship.

"That’s the reason why we decided to stop the British Talent Team for now, because we can support McPhee to race with a good team for next year, and we can also take care of the youngest riders we have.

"It was not so easy to decide, but we thought it was the best solution for everyone."

Puig admitted the situation might have been different had it not been possible to find one-time Moto3 race winner McPhee, who is sixth in the standings with one race left, a seat elsewhere on the grid.

"We took a lot of care in trying to fix [a seat] for John," he added. "It’s quite late, we understand, but finally everything is fixed and sorted.

"In case we didn’t have any space for him, the story would be different."

Asked to rate McPhee's season, Puig said the 23-year-old needs to find better consistency to go with the speed that has taken him to three podium finishes so far this season.

"He started really well the season, then in the middle of the season he struggled a little bit," said Puig. "It has been a little bit up and down.

"We still believe John can do a good season, but he needs to improve a little bit his consistency. The speed he has, he needs to have it during nine months.

"If he can work out next year how to be more consistent, then I think he has a chance to be top five, which is what we expected he could be [this year]."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont

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