MRT Racing Team Beta’s Ben Watson has been flying the British flag high on the MXGP scene for many years now, and despite posting some solid results across his MXGP career, it is fair to say his ceiling hasn’t been fully reached just yet.

A crash in Galicia last year meant Watson was required to undergo surgery on his right knee, sidelining him for over half of the 2024 season and reseting the momentum he was building. After thirteen rounds of the 2025 season complete, Watson currently sits 12th in the championship standings. However, the Brit has voiced his frustrations after the most recent Grand Prix in Finland, as he looked to be on route to a potential season best weekend prior to some technical issues.

“I actually felt really good this weekend, but both moto’s I had no rear brake for the last 20-minutes” he said, when reflecting on his weekend at the KymiRing, Finland. “It’s a shame, I’m actually really angry because how this can happen at the level we are – It’s one of them, it is out of my hands. Overall, I’m disappointed on one hand because of the result, but yeah, to be honest I felt I had pretty good speed this weekend so we’re take them positive’s and move on.”

Outside of the rear brake issues, Watson’s achilles heel has been getting out of the gate. A story we have seen all to much this season is the #919 battling through the back of the pack and making important passes late on to springboard him towards the top-ten. From the outside looking in, there could be some judgment on to not solving these problems yet. However, this is another factor which Watson is aware of and is causing further frustrating.

“It’s frustrating, because the start’s, it’s honestly not only me” he affirmed. “Like, my head’s not all there with it now because, you know, I’ve not even had one good start this whole year, so it’s one of them, we need to make some changes and then, if I take just one good start after making a change, you know, that click will happen and my head will be good again.”

Although the frustrations are there, Watson provided an honest insight into his mentality heading into the season after the injury, his aims and how achieving them is now causing the hunger for better results.

“The season has been positive, as a whole – If I look back now, it’s been positive. If I go back to my injury and I said, what do I want to do next year, if I’m fighting around that top-ten and showing my speed a bit then I’d be happy but I’m doing that and I’m not that happy because I know I can still do more.”

Results speak volumes in motorsport, but as we all know, they don’t always tell the true story. There is certainly more left to offer from Watson and it is only a matter of time before his true potential is matched with a result to reflect it.

Click the link below to listen to the full interview and the full post-race podcast episode!

Image courtesy of @rayarcherphoto