At the beginning of the year, two-time Superstock 1000 Champion Sylvain Barrier was looking forward to his second season in World Superbike with the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team, with which he had made his full-time debut in 2014 – a season eventually blighted by several injuries.

After taking part in the first two rounds of 2015 in Australia and Thailand, Barrier had to leave the team, putting an end to a five-year relationship with the Bavarian BMW marque. The Frenchman then joined the G.M. Racing team in order to return to Superstock 1000 and ride the new Yamaha YZF-R1M, but picked up a shoulder injury on his first weekend aboard the Japanese bike - an injury that has up until now hindered his progress.

Sylvain, you had a complicated start to the 2015 season, racing first in World Superbike and then going back to Superstock 1000. What kind of experience was that?
My start to the season was very difficult. There were big changes at BMW and the arrival of new people in the group created conflicts. They decided to put an end to our relationship. In the meantime, I was also working for Michelin to test their MotoGP tyres, which was a problem for BMW.

Yamaha was making a big effort to come back with a competitive bike. The team didn’t mind me working with Michelin at the same time; if everything was to go according to plan, I would get a Yamaha seat in World Superbike for next year.

Your first laps with the Yamaha R1-M in Aragon went very well and then you had a big crash. Tell us about your debut on that bike…
Everything went well for our first session on the bike in Aragon. I was second fastest from the first day - my first day on the bike. The day after, the temperatures were much lower and I lost the front in the second corner. I got stuck on the brake lever protector and, when I slid into the gravel trap, the bike just fell on me. I had four broken ribs and some pain in the shoulder. It was hard to race with those injuries but I gritted my teeth…

We were at Assen the following weekend and I still had pain in the shoulder. The week after, I raced in the Italian Championship which, more than anything, was to do with the development work with Michelin. We then had a test at Mugello and all that meant I didn’t have any time to get my shoulder checked-up, until I felt the start of a dislocation. I was thinking it was a muscular issue and got my shoulder strapped up, but the dislocation was still there.

After a while, the strap started damaging my skin, so I chose to see a surgeon who had taken care of me a while back. He diagnosed a ruptured tendon and some muscle tear. It was not too serious but it was the cause of my problems. I had emergency surgery a month ago, at the Clinique du Parc in Lyon and performed by Dr. Jerome Garret, who is a known specialist. I have a check-up this week.

What are your hopes for the next two rounds?
It will depend on the results of my check-up. The Yamaha is a great bike. The only issue is the development of the electronics. The Japanese engineers want to reach to absolute perfection before we can use it in the races. I know they’ve made a huge step forward with the YEC system. The bike has a lot of potential, especially when it comes to its behaviour. It’s fairly simple: the chassis and the swingarm come directly from MotoGP. Now I’m in a private team (G.M Racing) - the official one is Adrien Morillas’ team (MRS Yamaha). We’ll see how the next races go. If everything goes well, we can only make progress.

What is the relationship like between Yamaha and your team?
I’ve never had as much respect and sympathy than with the Yamaha team. My previous team was really nice, but the managers at Yamaha show a respect that some others don’t. They have this culture of racing and a lot of respect for the riders. I am very happy here, but they have already chosen their riders and their teams for the next WorldSBK season.

What about your future?
I’m trying to use my experience to develop the Michelin MotoGP tyres and maybe open some doors in the MotoGP paddock. I know that I’m not ready to race in MotoGP - there are many things that need to be sorted out to do that - but if a manufacturer (such as MV Agusta or another one) was looking to enter MotoGP, I could develop their bike on Michelin tyres using my experience. On the other hand, they could offer me a competitive bike in WorldSBK. That’s an idea I’m working on right now.

So everything is still very open for you?
There’s nothing decided yet for next year. There are a lot of talks going on. We need to proceed cleverly in order to open as many doors as possible.