Arnaud Tonus interview - Podium Guy

Posted on July 15, 2019

For Arnaud Tonus the fact he is a regular visitor to the MXGP podium is more than enough for the time being. Riding possibly as well as ever in his career, the Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha rider is confident with enjoying his racing, and just taking it one day at a time, he will continue to have fun, and get good results. 

Always a big talent, having battled Jeffrey Herlings back in the MX2 class and moving to America to take on the AMA series, the rider from Switzerland continued to improve. We caught up with him Sunday evening after yet another podium finish.

MXLarge: You continue to be very consistent. Being where you came from, I can imagine being consistent is a very nice thing?

Tonus: Well the nicest thing is to be consistently on the podium. That is even better. Also, to rebound from a tough weekend, that is really nice, and even on Saturday here, I didn’t have a great feeling on the track. It took me a while to find my set-up, so I am super happy to have two solid motos. My starts were not great, so I really had to fight for it. Find solutions to pass and also find the balance between pushing and not crashing, because it was super easy to make a mistake, so that was hard to balance it out and I managed to do it in two races.

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MXlarge: A lot of guys seemed to make ground on the rider in front, then lose it really easily. I guess everyone really struggled with the type of ground, and change in parts of the track?

Tonus: Yes, like I said, you feel like you are on a safe pace, then suddenly the front would slide away. It would just shock you a little bit and you could lose the confidence easily. I think we all had those moments of surprise on the track and we tried our best to stay on two wheels. It was for sure a track you couldn’t push, the harder you pushed, the slower you went.

MXlarge: Saying that, when you see Tim on the Sunday, he was really smooth, and hardly made a mistake on Sunday. Saturday, he had that mistake that hurt his ankle, but Sunday he looked really strong. Does that motivate you to get to that level, and obviously his confidence is high at the moment, or do you not really look at Tim at all?

Tonus: I don’t about him at all. I just look at my own weekend and try and see where I can be better. For sure Tim is the reference at the moment and you can learn from his for sure, just be humble enough to see where he is better, but I am not really putting too much attention on him, just trying to see where I can be better myself.

MXlarge: As I was waiting for you for this interview, it is amazing how many people want a selfie with you, or the other riders. How is that for you?

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Tonus: Well, it is a lot more enjoyable when you have a result like this. They do seem to like pictures with our girlfriends than they do with us, so we are not really the stars, but when you have a great weekend like this, it is cool to spend time with them and you can see they are so enthusiastic and for them it seems to very special to be with us, and maybe they put us too high compared to themselves. They seem super happy to spend time with us, so it’s cool.

MXLarge: How was the week between the two races, did you go to Bali?

Tonus: No, we went to Singapore.

MXlarge: Okay, you must have been the only guy in Singapore, but how was that?

Tonus: We went with the whole team and it was great. Louis decided to go there, for him it was a good destination. We spent a week together; it was great and a good atmosphere and relaxed. It was still super busy, and I expected less people. We actually stayed in the hotel with the highest swimming pool in the World. Louis wanted to spoil the team as he is so happy with how our results are. It was kind of a present from Louis and I am super thankful again.

MXlarge: With it going so well, and obviously with so many podiums, you must be thinking Grand Prix win?

Tonus: No, that isn’t my goal. I am not thinking this way, where I should go for it or not. I try and take every weekend as special, and even Saturday when I was struggling, I tried to keep a good mental attitude and see the positives. I am just thankful what I have at the moment and it is funny Tim is also just talking about having fun and it seems to be working for him. We are more focused on our riding than the result itself.

MXlarge: I know you probably can’t talk about it, but have you signed for Yamaha next year?

Tonus: I cannot say.

MXlarge: Does it look positive; can you say that?

Tonus: I want to stay with the team, and it is positive, but I can’t say anymore right now.

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