The only Czech rider in the MotoGP World Championship, Filip Salač, has completed 180 kilometres of testing behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2. Less than a week ago, tens of thousands of fans applauded his successful return to MotoGP in Brno, and now he has taken his first steps into car racing with Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra.
„Filip and I had been planning for about two years for him to try out car racing. Now, finally, our schedules aligned with a test day in Most,” said Jiří Mičánek, team manager of Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra and also Salač’s instructor.
For Filip Salač, it was his first experience in a full-on racing car. After four laps as a passenger, he immediately took the wheel himself. “It’s incredible how the car drives, how light it feels, and how it does exactly what you want,” Salač said after completing his first stint.
The Czech motorcycle star ended up spending most of the day on track. “From the start, it was clear that we didn’t want any exhibition laps, but a real test as if Filip were preparing for a race. With the full team and engineers on hand,” emphasised Jiří Mičánek.
And there were no compromises when it came to the car setup either. “The car Filip sat in is the same one we used to finish third in the GT2 European Series over the weekend. It wouldn’t make sense to change anything significantly for him as a racer. It was clear from the start that he would already have race instincts and that proved to be the case. From the very first laps, it was obvious he knew exactly what to do. Everything we normally have to teach drivers from scratch simply wasn’t necessary here,” Mičánek confirmed.
It also worked in Salač’s favour that he made his Huracán debut at Most, a track he knows well. “The racing line here is quite similar to the one on a bike, given how narrow and connected the corners are, so it only took me a little adjustment. On the other hand, handling the car’s weight is tough the physics are completely different compared to a motorcycle. But in a car, I have much more time to think about the line and braking points. On a bike, you simply have less time,” he reflected.
It was the brakes that came as the biggest surprise for the currently twelfth-fastest Moto2 rider in the world. “On a bike, we brake with the front at 12 bar; here on the straight, it’s 120 bar — ten times as much. The car slows down incredibly,” he said. “It was clear that Filip has an amazing eye for it and brakes with incredible precision. From my perspective in the passenger seat, sometimes even a bit too precisely. I could imagine he might brake slightly earlier,” laughed Jiří Mičánek, who completed the first stints alongside Salač.
Salač and Jiří Mičánek hope to build on these initial tests with further collaboration. “With his experience and racing instincts, Filip could easily be competitive in the Czech Championship. It’s certainly possible that we’ll see him on the grid in our team colours in the future. It wouldn’t be unprecedented Dani Pedrosa raced alongside us in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, and Valentino Rossi won in GT World Challenge Europe at Misano on Sunday, while we finished third in the GT2 European Series,” explained Jiří Mičánek, noting that the key will be coordinating the schedules of the MotoGP rider and Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra.
