In 2022, CFMOTO became the first-ever Chinese manufacturer on the Moto3 constructor’s championship. This year, with their partner – the Aspar team, as of the end of Aragon GP, CFMOTO is leading the Moto3 riders’ championship by 75 points, the teams’ championship by 37 points, and the constructors’ championship by 13 points. We recently had a conversation with the mastermind behind this project – CFMOTO’s Brand Director Samantha LIU Xiaofang (刘晓芳). Here is the story of her career and motorsport adventure with the manufacturer from Zhejiang Province, China.
© All photos provided by CFMOTO Racing
Samantha has spent her entire career so far with CFMOTO. Before the company had any ambition in motorsport, she was crafting her skills in the sales department of the core business. “I joined CFMOTO in 2006 when I graduated from college. I was an assistant in the foreign trade department, assisting our business managers. I’ve even helped out in packaging in our factories. Then I moved on to sales. After a few years, our business in Europe took off, and I became an expat in France.”
Her experience in France built her into a mature business person. Also during her stint in Europe, Samantha even gathered some resources that would come in handy one day for the motorsport project. “I was really young at the time, and I’ve always been a strong performer in my work. But it took me some time to adapt to the local culture in France. They don’t like speaking English, there is a lot of travelling around Europe, I was only among a few Chinese colleagues. It was an important period for my growth in my professional career. I learned about their culture, how to deal with the local people, and how to bring us together despite our differences. I built up a lot of contacts in Europe and I had a lot of experience working with foreign teams, which all proved to be very useful in our major projects in the future, for example, our JV with KTM, and our MotoGP project.”
When she came back from Europe in 2012, Samantha became the general manager of the communications department in addition to her duties in the sales department. This is also when her first motorsport project kicked off. “During my first few years back, we started to streamline our key visuals and designs in marketing. With the growth of our company and brand, we consolidated our branding across different markets. In 2013, our partner in the UK – WK Bikes – entered Isle of Man TT with the factory-supported CFMOTO WK650.”
The Isle of Man TT project was initiated by the local partners, but it was a great opportunity for Samantha to shift from the audience’s perspective to the racing team’s perspective. “I went to the Isle of Man for the race. I’ve been following motorsport myself. It’s an exciting sport. But it’s different from the outside. The people working in motorsport are really professional. We brought the best engine with the biggest displacement China had to offer at the time, but we saw how the motorsport insiders would approach it in a different way, different from how we would build a production bike.”
As CFMOTO’s business steadily grew, the management started to have its own aspirations in motorsport. Samantha became the person to take the idea to fruition. “At first we were exploring our options, as we didn’t have a clear idea of what kind of investment it would take. We came in with an open mind, and I started researching. I leveraged my contacts in Europe, trying to figure out what it would take to build a team, what the team would look like, from R&D to trackside costs. We took our time and did very thorough research on all three classes, especially Moto3. Internally we evaluated the result of our research. We decided that we could afford it and it was a good investment for our brand.”
The objectives were quite clear from day one – CFMOTO is in the motorsport game to truly grow the influence of a Chinese brand in the world, to develop its engineering excellence, and to support Chinese riders on the biggest stage possible. “If we only enter as a sponsor, it would be almost too easy. We only need to throw money at it. We want the world to know our brand. We want to represent China in this industry – Chinese products, Chinese technologies, and Chinese riders. Showing the world what we are capable of. We’ve been planning our Talent Trophy since the beginning of the project.”
Speaking of Chinese riders and CFMOTO’s Talent Trophy program, it brings us to one sad but motivating aspect of CFMOTO’s current motorsport effort. “I really want to see Chinese riders in the highest level of motorsport championships. It’s a shame we don’t have any Chinese riders in the MotoGP paddock.”
On the technical side, CFMOTO’s new SR series has leveraged data and experience from their MotoGP effort, but of course, there is still a long way to go for all their racing experience to be implemented in the production bikes. “We are still learning and absorbing as much as we can from the race track. We want our customers to benefit from our success on track. It takes time and a lot of effort. We are building the relevant capability.”
While Samantha was working on the preparation of the project, she was also carrying her second child. As she jokes about it herself, it was like carrying two children to terms at the same time. Her motorsport child is doing great in front of the whole world, leading the Moto3 Riders’ Championship by 75 points (as of Aragon GP). In the landslide that is CFMOTO Aspar team’s dominating wins, Samantha has experienced a victory and a podium during the Catalunya GP this year, witnessing a milestone in CFMOTO’s motorsport project. “It was a great weekend. Jorge (Martinez)’s circuit just opened. Our Talent Trophy riders were training in Spain. I was really happy to join the team in the paddock that weekend. I was so excited to see David chasing all the way to the front and winning in Moto3, at one of the team’s home rounds. It was extra exciting as Jake took his first podium of the year in Moto2, after a difficult start of the season. It was important for him to get back to his form. I was discussing with Jorge in the pit box how he found himself again. It was a historical day for CFMOTO!”
But Samantha understands that the beauty of competitive sport lies in the uncertainty and plays down the talk about the Moto3 title. “You can never predict the final result until you’ve taken the checkered flag. You can lead the first 20 laps but fall in the last lap. Other riders may run into you and ruin your perfect race. You never know. This is also why motorsport attracts us to it.”
We are keeping an eye on many things. We may not be ready for all the championships we are interested in. But we will continue to evaluate the return on what we are doing and the influences of other championships.
The motorsport business for manufacturers is built on the notion of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’. Of course, there isn’t a scientific equation translating David Alonso and Jake Dixon’s wins into sales numbers, but CFMOTO has seen brand recognition shifting overseas and the sport gradually taking its root in China. “Europe, North America, and Australia have traditionally been our main markets globally. Many GPs are held in these markets, and the sport is covered in more mainstream media. Good results on track definitely help with our exposure and brand recognition. Because of regulations for bikes on our road, as well as the lack of motorcycling culture, MotoGP isn’t as popular in China as in Spain or Italy. But we’ve seen the growth of the sport among the younger generation. People are taking an interest in it. The core fanbase of MotoGP in China is as passionate about the sport as those in Europe, just with a smaller amount of people. So we are optimistic about the future of our sport in China. We’ve seen that our customers are very enthusiastic about our MotoGP endeavour.”
In the end, we asked Samantha to give young women some career advice as a successful business person. Here is what she said. “I’m a mother of two. My advice is, never give up your own career, and never underestimate your power in the work place. When necessary, forget that you are a woman.”
CFMOTO is celebrating 35 years of the company’s establishment this month. We wish Samantha and CFMOTO all the best of luck this MotoGP season and beyond. Hopefully we see Chinese riders on Chinese bikes winning in the World Championship some time soon!
Paddock Sorority 
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