Alex Hofmann (racing driver)

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Alex Hofmann
Hofmann's accident in Laguna Seca in 2007

Alexander "Alex" Hofmann (born May 25, 1980 in Mindelheim ) is a former German motorcycle racer and TV presenter .

He is the first German motorcycle racer who managed to become German champion (10 races, 10 victories) and European champion in his first year on a 250 cm³ motorcycle in road racing . Based on his youth role model Loris Capirossi , he started with starting number 66.

Career

Alex Hofmann made his debut as a wildcard rider with a 14th place in the Grand Prix of Germany in 1997 on a 125- cc - Yamaha in the motorcycle world championship . In 1998 he won both the German and the European championship in the 250 cm³ class. At the quarter liter Grand Prix of Germany, Hofmann was tenth this year.

From the 1999 season to the 2001 season , he competed in the 250cc World Championship first on a TSR Honda and later on an Aprilia . Twelfth place overall in 2001 was his best result.

In the 2002 season , Alex Hofmann made his debut in the Red Bull Yamaha WCM team as a substitute driver for Garry McCoy in the MotoGP class. In the further course of the season he replaced the injured Loris Capirossi in the West Honda Pons team of Sito Pons in two races .

From the 2003 season to the 2005 season , Hofmann competed in the MotoGP class for the Kawasaki factory team . In 2006 and 2007 he rode a Ducati for the D'Antin MotoGP team.

In the 2007 season Hofmann showed good performance at the beginning, at the rainy French Grand Prix he achieved the best result of his World Cup career with fifth place. On July 20, 2007, during training for the US Grand Prix in Laguna Seca , he was innocently rammed by Sylvain Guintoli and suffered an open fracture in his left hand. Hofmann had to be hospitalized and operated on for three hours. After a break of several weeks, he returned to the race in San Marino , but was unable to build on his good results in the first half of the season.

At the Grand Prix of Portugal on September 16, 2007, Hofmann had to start out of the pit lane due to a problem with his motorcycle and then drove after the field. After a few laps he parked his bike in the pits on the grounds that he could not motivate himself to fight for the last positions. He was then dismissed by the D'Antin team that night for refusing to work. He then sued for reinstatement in order to be able to finish the 2007 season. The matter was eventually settled out of court. Alex Hofmann dropped the lawsuit, and in return the team agreed to relativize the statements regarding the refusal to work.

After Hofmann had no space on a MotoGP motorcycle in the 2008 season, Aprilia hired him as a development and test rider for the new RSV4 superbike . If the performance was appropriate, it was planned that he would start as an Aprilia works driver in the Superbike World Championship from 2009 . This hope was taken away from him when Shin'ya Nakano , who switched from the MotoGP class to the Superbike World Championship, got a contract with Aprilia and started for the Italians in 2009 alongside Max Biaggi . The German remained a test driver for the manufacturer from Noale . After his contract expired, he switched to KTM in 2015 to help prepare the company's entry into MotoGP 2017 as a test rider.

From 2009 to 2014 Alex Hofmann also worked for the TV broadcaster Sport1 as a co-commentator and later as a presenter and interviewer for the motorcycle World Cup broadcasts. With the return of the Motorcycle World Championship to Eurosport for the 2015 season, Alex Hofmann also switched and worked there as a reporter from the pit lane. In the spring of the following year he left the station again on the grounds that his reporting was characterized by technical and personal setbacks . He has been working for Servus-TV since 2016 and, like at Eurosport, is commenting on the Motorcycle World Cup alongside Christian Brugger.

Among other things, he is occasionally used in Formula 1 broadcasts on the German TV broadcaster RTL as a representative for Florian König .

Hofmann is married and has two children.

In addition to his mother tongue German, he speaks fluent English, Spanish, Italian and French.

statistics

title

In the motorcycle world championship

season class team motorcycle run Victories Second Third Poles Nice Race laps Points position
1997 125 cc Yamaha TZ 125 1 - - - - - 2 28.
1998 250 cc Honda NSR 250 1 - - - - - 6th 29
1999 250 cc Racing Factory Honda NSR 250 16 - - - - - 51 16.
2000 250 cc Racing Factory Aprillia RSV 250 9 - - - - - 12 25th
2001 250 cc Racing Factory Aprillia RSV 250 15th - - - - - 55 12.
2002 MotoGP Red Bull Yamaha WCM Yamaha YZR 500 2 - - - - - 5 22nd
MotoGP West Honda Pons Honda NSR 500 2 - - - - - 6th
Overall result 2002 4th - - - - - 11
2003 MotoGP Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 5 - - - - - 8th 23.
2004 MotoGP Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 16 - - - - - 51 15th
2005 MotoGP Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 10 - - - - - 24 19th
2006 MotoGP Pramac d'Antin Ducati Desmosedici GP5 14th - - - - - 23 17th
MotoGP Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati Desmosedici GP6 3 - - - - - 7th
Overall result 2006 17th - - - - - 30th
2007 MotoGP Pramac d'Antin Ducati Desmosedici GP7 12 - - - - - 65 13.
total 106 - - - - - 315

In the Superbike World Championship

season team motorcycle run Victories Second Third Poles Nice Race laps Points position
2002 Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-7RR 2 - - - - - 4th 34.
total 2 - - - - - 4th

Honors

Web links

Commons : Alex Hofmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Hofmann becomes KTM MotoGP test rider speedweek.com from December 16, 2014, accessed on July 26, 2016.
  2. ↑ From Eurosport: Alex Hofmann pulls the rip cord motorsport-total.com from February 1, 2016, accessed on July 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ This is RTL presenter Alex Hofmann. rtl.de, accessed on April 20, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Alex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofmann, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Mindelheim , Germany