(Motorsport-Total.com) – Noah Dettwiler is currently the only German-speaking rider with a regular place in the starting fields of the Motorcycle World Championship. The 19-year-old Swiss is in his rookie season in the Moto3 World Championship. However, he is not only under contract with the French CIP team for 2024, but also under a two-year contract until the end of 2025.
19-year-old Swiss Noah Dettwiler is racing in his first full World Championship season Zoom
Dettwiler is supported and promoted by former MotoGP rider and long-time Moto2 rider Tom Lüthi. In the eleven races so far this season, the Dettwiler has made it into the top 15 once and thus into the points. That was in mid-April on the USA weekend at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, where he finished 14th.
In all other races, Dettwiler finished outside the points. He has always finished to date. This also includes his first two races, which he completed as a wildcard starter in 2023, in Spielberg (Austria) and in Mandalika (Indonesia). His first full World Championship season is primarily a learning process for the young Swiss.
“It is certainly not an easy first year,” says Dettwiler in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com“We knew that we would have better races at times and less good races at times. That’s exactly how it is at the moment. We are at a point where we have to find our way out of a bit of a hole.”
“We are making progress. But we are simply driving very fast. Sure, it is the first year. But of course you always want more,” says the teenager from Basel, who now lives in Valencia, Spain.
“You actually put the most pressure on yourself,” says Dettwiler. In this context, his two-year contract is a great help. “We just have to grit our teeth now. The most important thing is of course not to give up,” he says, and is convinced: “At some point, the light at the end of the tunnel will come.”
Dettwiler has always finished on the CIP team’s KTM – once in the top 15 Zoom
Dettwiler points out that he and the CIP team still have work to do: “I still struggle to drive consistently fast. Sometimes we have a good session in between, but we’re still lacking a bit of consistency.” Dettwiler’s teammate is the Italian Riccardo Rossi, who is already in his sixth season in the Moto3 World Championship.
Dettwiler’s mentor Tom Lüthi, who himself was active in the motorcycle world championship for 20 years, looks after his young compatriot. The youngster really appreciates this support. “Tom has also been through ups and downs himself. With all his experience, I can really trust him, both on and off the track,” says the 19-year-old.
In conversation with Motorsport-Total.com Lüthi describes his role as mentor for Dettwiler as follows: “I think it helps him enormously if I can just be a bit of a guide from time to time by saying: Look, try this and that.”
Tom Lüthi, who himself drove in the World Championship for 20 years, gives Dettwiler valuable tips Zoom
Lüthi, who is in a relationship with Dettwiler’s sister, does not see himself as a classic riding coach: “I do go out to the track. But I think it is more important that he understands basic things and can implement them. He is a huge talent, he can ride a motorcycle. He just has to give himself the time now.”
Lüthi can empathize with Dettwiler’s current situation. And he knows how to classify it. “I can understand how he feels,” he says, although he himself has never ridden in the Moto3 World Championship because it did not exist in its current form with 250cc motorcycles at the beginning of the 2000s.
The experienced Swiss knows exactly how hard it is for a newcomer. “The Moto3 class in the World Championship is a shark tank. The density is brutal. When I was in the 125cc class, it was a completely different world,” says Lüthi.
14th place in Austin: Dettwiler’s highlight so far in his World Championship career Zoom
Apart from Noah Dettwiler, currently the only German-speaking rider with a regular place in the Motorcycle World Championship, there have only been individual starts by riders from German-speaking countries in the three top classes – MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 – in the current 2024 season.
In the premier class MotoGP, Honda test driver Stefan Bradl gets the odd wildcard appearance. In the Moto2 class, Marcel Schrötter stepped in three times as a replacement for Deniz Öncü. And in the Moto3 class, Jakub Rosenthaler from Austria recently made his World Championship debut in Peter Öttl’s Intact team. Apart from that, Lukas Tulovic is driving the full season in the MotoE World Championship, also in the Intact team.
