KUALA LUMPUR: Zulfahmi Khairuddin believes his charge Hakim Danish Ramli needs to forget about the Moto3 Rookie of the Year standings and just take things one race at time.
Danish finished third at Mugello and won at Brno, both in July, before suffering a mid-season slump in form.
But the Aeon Credit-MT Helmets-MSI rider came back strong at the Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia over the weekend, qualifying third and finishing fourth in the lightweight class race.
Zulfahmi, who has been mentoring and managing Danish since 2020, said Danish’s focus was much better at Sepang.
“I believe now is the time for us to focus on taking things one race at a time rather than thinking too much about the championship, which put too much pressure on him,” said Zulfahmi yesterday.
“When we take things one race at a time, like we did here at Sepang, he is much more focused and the results show that.
“When he is thinking too much about Veda Pratama or Brian Uriarte, he loses that focus.
“If he can just focus on one race at a time, at the end of the day the points will show where he is at.”
Zulfahmi added that Danish, 19, has had a steep learning curve to overcome since stepping up to Moto3 this season.
“We all know that Danish has immense potential but as a rookie, it is very difficult to be consistent,” he said.
“There are tracks that he has never raced at and then there are also tracks which he is familiar with but is suddenly struggling to find pace on.
“There are a lot of challenges and so we have to manage our expectations.
“Having said that, the team is genuinely happy with Danish this season.
“I believe Danish still has a lot more room for improvement and there is also room to improve his bike.”
Danish is currently ninth in the overall Moto3 standings on 116 points.
Veda (Honda Team Asia) is seventh on 131 points while Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo) is third (205 points) in the standings.
The duo, who were both Danish’s rivals in the Red Bull Rookies Cup last year, are again his rivals in the Moto3 Rookie of the Year class this season.
Danish will next race at the Qatar GP which is scheduled to start on Friday.