Sayfutdinov boss - Emil can win

Sayfutdinov: Ready for new season (Pic credit: Fotospeedway.pl)

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Emil Sayfutdinov's team manager insists the Russian sensation has what it takes to claim the world title this year.

The 20-year-old roared onto the Grand Prix stage last season, winning the opening round of the season in Czech Republic and becoming the youngest ever rider to win a GP.

He followed that up with win in Sweden and Slovenia and was in the mix for the title right up to the final round.

The Russian's success caught many by surprise, but he is now focussed on improving on his third placed finish.

"Emil knows how everything works now in the Grand Prix. Last year was a learning year, but it was also a big success," said his team Tomasz Suskiewicz - who played a leading role in Tony Rickardsson's successes in previous years.

"If he maintains the progress of last year, he could become world champion this season. It is a possibility, but it is not the target. The target is to get into the top three and anything more than that would be a bonus for him."

Suskiewicz confirmed that his young protégé was ready for the new season, but he would be not be taking in any of the individual meetings in England - unlike fellow GP stars Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen.

"We have the bikes ready and we're just waiting for the dates when we will go testing. We're not doing any meetings in England before the GP starts, but we'll have some in Poland - that's for sure. We will be 100 percent ready for the first Grand Prix," he said.

"We have one more mechanic, which will be very helpful. It will be better if the team is a little bit bigger than it was last year.

"We've also ordered some engines from different tuners, but the main one is still Ashley (Holloway), of course. We need to test these and see if we are happy with them or not.

"Hopefully, this will help us to win more Grand Prix meetings than last year. We're testing engines from other tuners because sometimes different engines suit different tracks."