The comparison with a good wine, which gets better the more mature it is, forces itself on Max Nagl. The 38-year-old narrowly missed out on his sixth title last season on a new bike in a new team and is as hungry as ever. He wants to secure the first championship in the ADAC MX Masters for Triumph, is confident for the new season after a good preparation and revealed in the pre-season interview whether this will be his last racing season as a professional rider.

How is the preparation for the 2026 ADAC MX Masters season going?

Max Nagl: "The pre-season is going quite well and I'm satisfied. I was healthy all winter, which is always the most important thing, and I was able to start a little earlier in preparatory races this year. Everything runs smoothly with the bike and we keep taking steps forward in development. There will be more updates for the bike, which I will then test at the next preparatory race in Oss."

Was the preparation calmer due to the two-year contract with Dörr Motorsport?

"In any case, it was easier than last year because it was a completely new project last year and the bikes and special parts came very late. When I was in Spain last winter, I had to train with a complete standard bike because there was simply no material yet. Everything was already ready for this winter and I was able to take some of last year's bikes. That's why it was a bit more relaxed now."

A brief review of the 2025 season: Was the title lost or did second place win?

"Looking back at 2025, everything is okay. Of course, I would have preferred to take the title, but I'm also happy with second place considering the circumstances: we had a new team, a new project, a new bike, it wasn't always that easy. There were also a lot of things happening behind the scenes that you didn't even notice in public, where there was a lot of work involved and some of which also cost some points. But that's the way it is in motorsport, it was also taken into account and that's why I wasn't sad about second place. We are better positioned for the 2026 season and I clearly want to compete for the title again."

20 years after the first ADAC MX Masters title, you're still in contention for the championship. What is the recipe for such a long career and will it be the last season?

"My career is much longer. (laughs) But when you see that 2006 was my first ADAC MX Masters title and I can fight for a title again in 2026, that's a long time. It's not always easy, and it's getting harder every year. I live very healthy and disciplined, from nutrition to training to recovery. These are all things that are part of the fact that I can still play the sport at such a high level at my age. I will be 39 years old this year. Many say I should do this until I'm 40. But I don't know if I'll do that. At the moment, I decide from year to year. My two-year contract with Triumph expires this year. I feel good at the moment, I'm motivated, I'm having fun and as long as that's the case, I can do the sport. But at some point the point comes, when it may no longer be physically possible or the fun is lost or something, then the time has come to stop. But I'm not there yet. I want to ski as well as possible this season and only have to deal more with what I do in the future in late summer, when the negotiations start."

What are the advantages and disadvantages compared to the younger competition?

"One advantage, of course, is my experience. I know exactly how I have to prepare for the races, what I have to do in training, how the whole thing works. You're also a bit more relaxed at the races and not quite as nervous anymore. What is missing, however, is the liveliness. That means at the start and in the first laps it didn't get any easier for me or especially the qualifying. That has never been my strong point anyway and that has become even more difficult over the years. I also talked a lot with my former coach about it. He gave me tips on what I can adapt in training for my age to counteract this a bit. But in the end it's biology and you just become more and more like a diesel: the longer the race distance, the better I get, but the sprint qualities just drop and I have to compensate for that elsewhere. That's the most difficult task for me."

Who will be the strongest opponents in the new season?

"It will be similar to last year. Roan van de Moosdijk and the usual ones of the last two years are all back. Maybe people like Talviku or new riders from Sweden and Norway will come into play, because we mainly have sand races and of course they are really strong there. You just have to wait and see, you can only really say after the first race."

Which event is the most excited about?

"I'm most looking forward to Bitche in France. A fairly new track on the calendar is always great because it's just something different. And I like their layout, because it is more like that of a hard surface track, but with a sandy bottom. This makes it very challenging to ride because extremely large and deep holes come out, but I like that. I actually like to ride all routes except Gaildorf, which has always been a problem for me in recent years. But I've also thought about that and will try something new this year. We'll only see at the race whether that works out."

Has anything changed in the program?

What has changed in the preparation from a technical point of view compared to last year is that we were now able to focus more on performance than on stability in order to set up the bike even better for me. My bike will have a bit more power this year, we made a few changes to the chassis via the swingarm. In addition, I am now working with ORS Suspension, with whom we have already made strong progress on the chassis. These are subtleties that really help me as a driver. I also have another race mechanic for this year. At home, however, everything has remained the same, I have the same training mechanic, the physical preparation, actually everything is as usual."

ADAC Interview and Image