‘MENTALLY I COULDN’T MANAGE’
• Fabio on Marquez, Mir and missed opportunities,
Just over seven minutes after Marc Marquez suffered his seasonending arm break at the opening round of the 2020 MotoGP season at Jerez, wonder boy Fabio Quartararo crossed the line to win his first ever premier class race. It was clearly an emotional moment for the passionate 21-year-old and an achievement he backed up seven days later with another win to lead the title race with 50 points, 39 more than eventual winner Joan Mir.
With just two rounds complete, a first win in the bag and Marquez out injured, Quartararo was already being spoken about as the world champion elect, but that wasn’t how the year worked out. Apart from one more win at round eight, Quartararo came crashing down to earth – scoring just 19 points in the final six races, meaning he slumped to eighth in the final championship standings and third best Yamaha.
So what happened to MotoGP’s brightest star? Veteran French journalist Michel Turco spent two days with Quartararo in Andorra to get the low down on where it all went wrong and what he’s doing to make it all go right in 2021.
‘It’s sad to have lost a chance to be MotoGP world champion’
Quartararo’s hero to zero campaign was a surprise to us all. During his rookie 2019 season he’d looked so strong, setting poles, fastest laps and battling Marquez and he was only expected to get better in 2020 but while some parts of his race game improved, others did not.
“I started the championship with a bike that was perfect, but very quickly we encountered technical problems that disrupted both its performance and mine. 2019 had been a perfect year, not only did I have no problems, but everything got better and better. They allowed me to have 500rpm more, they gave me the carbon fork, but 2020 was the opposite and everything got worse. I still could have done much better, that’s for sure, unfortunately I wasn’t able to. Mentally, I couldn’t manage the situation. After having won the two races in Jerez, I couldn’t accept that I wasn’t competitive anymore. I told myself that I didn’t have the bike to win and it affected me mentally.”
The pressure and expectation heaped upon Quartararo ultimately took its toll and it’s clear that he laments what he regards as a blown chance.
“It’s sad to have lost an opportunity to be world champion, because I think that the chance really existed, but on the other hand I learned so much during the 2020 season that I am not frustrated. If I had accepted coming sixth or eighth instead of crashing, I could have easily finished on the final podium. I made mistakes, but I had to make them so that I could learn from them. Advice is good, but as long as you haven’t made the mistakes you are asked to avoid! I know now that even if I am here to win, sometimes I have to accept that I can’t.”
From exuberant celebrations when winning races through to spectacular strops when the results didn’t materialise, it’s fair to say Quartararo wears his heart on his sleeve. According to his mum, getting angry is one of his biggest weakness in life. A weakness that led him to begin working with a psychiatrist.
‘I wanted to control it all, the bike, the mechanics’
“We worked a lot on it, he gave me exercises to do and a method to better manage my emotions. “lot of things have now happened that allowed me to understand and learn about myself. Today I feel that I am more structured. “et’s say that last year I thought too much, I wanted to work too much. When things didn’t go well, I thought““It’s the bike, it’s me, it’s this, it’s that...’. I sometimes tried to find solutions instead of letting the engineers do their job. Of course, I know how to change a wheel, but that’s where it ends. “t one point I wanted to control everything, the bike, the mechanics. I had to tell myself that everyone is doing their best and that it is my job to ride.“
The Michelin effect
It wasn’t just “uartararo that missed out on becoming champion in 2020, it was also Yamaha who haven’t won the title since “orge “orenzo triumphed in 2015, back when Bridgestone were the official Moto“P tyre supplier.
“I had never thought about the fact that Yamaha’s last title was on Bridgestones. What I can tell you is that last year, when we tested in “atar at the beginning of March, I had never felt so good on the bike. I did some incredible race simulations without any tyre problems. It was the same for the races in “erez where I won, but when we went to “rag“n after three laps the tyre was dead. “ven if I got pole position, the race was horrible. In Barcelona too we had a big degradation, but I still managed to win. The strange thing is that Morbidelli won in “rag“n while we, with the new bike, were lost. It’s true that last year the behaviour of the bike was very irregular.“
Newer not better
“or 2020, “uartararo was given a factory-spec M1 the same as official riders “alentino Rossi and Maverick “i“ales. While on paper it was the way forward, in reality Yamaha’s fourth rider “ranco Morbidelli on a 2019-spec M1 stole the show.
“It was hard for me, “alentino and Maverick, especially when I think of the feeling I had with this bike in 2019 where I felt good on any track and in any conditions. In 2020, in the rain, I sucked. “ven though it was never my strongest point, the year before, when it rained, I was in the top six in every practice session. “ast year in “e Mans, Rossi fell at the start and “i“ales and I were fighting for eighth place... That means that something wasn’t right.“
Cal can provide answers
“uartararo and his Yamaha teammates will get just four days of testing prior to the opening round on March 26-2“to decide on what chassis they will use. In 2020 Morbidelli used a 2019-spec bike to great effect finishing second overall and while “i“ales wants to revert to the 2019 chassis, “uartararo isn’t convinced that’s the right choice. “The problem is that the 2020 chassis was brand new and we couldn’t really test it properly. What is needed is for Yamaha to improve its test team. I’m glad they recruited “al “rutchlow because he is a sincere and straightforward rider. I really hope they will set up a real test programme with him. This is something we missed last year.“
Full factory… at a price
“uartararo’s promotion to the factory team was an obvious step, even if it did come at the expense of “alentino Rossi. But while he’ll be getting the latest bike and be able to lead development, “uartararo had to make concessions on his salary to secure his dream ride.
“It was a choice I made after discussions with my manager “ric Mahé. When we saw the lap time set by “i“ales in “alencia at the end of 2019, we said to ourselves that we had to be on this bike, even if it meant cutting back on the 2021 salary. It’s true that today we’re biting our fingers a little, but that’s how it is, that’s life.“