Gardner: "Carrying an illustrious surname has given me things and taken them away from me"

One would think that being the son of a guy who won 18 races, climbed the podium 52 times and started 19 times from pole to add two runner-up finishes in the world and become the first Australian who managed to be champion of the highest category, in 1987, the road to success would be a red carpet.

But Remy Gardner, the son of the legendary Wayne ‘Crocodile’ Gardner , has not had, far from it, a clear path to achieve his goals, supplying with effort and absolute dedication, the difficulties he has had to deal with.

Last Thursday, in the run-up to the Italian Grand Prix , Remy attended Motorsport.com in a calm and relaxed conversation, in which we detected a single taboo subject: precisely talking about his father.

Question: At what point in your life do you first remember that your dream was to get to MotoGP?

Answer: It is difficult, I would say that the moment when, at the age of 12, I tried a speed bike, I wanted to try it and it was not so bad. When I was 13 I started racing in the Mediterranean championship, I remember that I finished second, it wasn’t bad, and from there I always wanted to get to MotoGP. I always had Valentino Rossi and all of these as idols, but I didn’t know if I could make it here, I didn’t know I was going to make it until I did it this year. From a very young age I have always wanted to race in MotoGP.

Q. -During this long journey, was there a moment when you thought you were not going to make it?

R. Quite a few times, for sure, the days of Moto3, the CEV era was not spectacular either, but especially my first year of Moto3, it was horrible, it was quite difficult for me. Also in Moto2 I spent a couple of quite ‘crappy’ years and it didn’t look like I could get anywhere. But improving things, being self-critical, training hard and always giving everything, in the end it came.

Q. How did you manage to take the step from being a rider who wasn’t aiming for great things until very recently, to completing an impeccable year like last, in which you won the Moto2 World Championship?

R. I think it all started in 2020, the previous year I already had the bike to be there and opt for podiums, we achieved one and a pole in 2019. But I lacked the experience of riding in front, of squaring everything and using my head a little more, it was a tough year but I learned a lot. During the winter of 2019 to 2020 I worked a lot on controlling myself, on being more technical and calm on the bike. The first race in Qatar went well and I made up a lot of positions after a bad start, up to fifth. Then COVID arrived, and in Jerez it cost us a bit in that heat (two races in the middle of July).

Remy Gardner was proclaimed Moto2 world champion last year in the last race, in Valencia

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

In Austria we started to go well and I crashed when I was third. That hurt me because it was like throwing away a podium for free, for pressing without it being necessary. From that moment I started to square everything and the second part of the 2020 season was ‘fucking mother’. If I didn’t fall in the Misano warm up, breaking my foot and hand, I would have fought for the title already that year. I think we brought the perseverance, rhythm and inertia from the end of 2020 to 2021, we started very well and finished better, with the championship.

P. And now the dream has come true, MotoGP rider… “And world champion”, he corrects. Is this like when you really like something, but when you achieve it, it’s not what you expected?

A. Man! It’s ‘heavy’, the bikes are very beastly, the way they run, the brakes, everything is very strong, I will always be proud of having made it to MotoGP , there are many who don’t make it. I have managed to get out of the shit and get to the top class. If it is true that this year is very complicated, there is a higher level than ever and the mechanical issue too, all the bikes are ‘fucked’ and all the riders the same, it’s fucked up. Only if you get distracted for a moment you are last. It is part of the path and learning, we are going to be calm and continue working.

P. On the way to get here, having an illustrious surname like Gardner, has it given or taken more from you?

R. Surely he has given me something and taken something from me. For some things it has been very difficult, I assure you one hundred percent. But something has also helped me, surely in my early years, it has taught me everything, it gave me training and helped me learn faster. But there are also negative parts, he still has problems with people from the past, or whatever, and many doors are closed.

P. However, before your father used to come to the races with you and now he doesn’t come, a situation similar to that of Jorge Lorenzo or Alex Rins, whose parents at first formed an important part of the nucleus and ended up disappearing.

R. At first he came, but he hasn’t been for years. I’m older now and I can do things by myself (it’s clear that he doesn’t want to talk about it).

P. Last year you managed to be Moto2 world champion and also against a very strong rival, there the last name does not give gas. Did winning make you calmer as a driver or as a person?

R. No, I never felt the pressure to carry the last name that I have, I am another person, with other interests and very different from my father. We are two very different people and basically the last name has never affected me.

Remy Gardner in the box with his partner, an important pillar in his career in recent years

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

P. Is having been world champion the culmination of the work you started when you first got on a motorcycle, or a step towards the goal?

A. It’s just one step, you have to go through the whole process and balance everything and have it in place to win the World Cup, it’s all up to me. In 2019 I took a very big step and in 2020 another. My girlfriend has also helped me a lot in this sense, I met her right at the end of being in Tech3, in Moto2, and since then I have only done things well, better, she has helped me a lot”.

Q. If they let you write the rules, what would you change about MotoGP?

A. I would remove all the electronics and all those holeshot and wing shit, ‘back to basic’, for me the most beautiful bikes in history were when Marco Melandri raced the Honda in 2005, they skidded, they did wheelies, it was cool. I always have in my head the image of Melandri skidding out of the last corner at Phillip Island with a waving hand. Today there is no such show.

P. It had always been said that the rider makes more of a difference in MotoGP than in F1, does he make it less every day?

R. Yes, yes, each time a little less. It’s not yet full F1, but it’s getting more and more difficult, even Marc Márquez is suffering, before he could make a difference and now it’s hard for him. (The interview was done the day before it became known that he was going to have another operation).

P. The weekend of Le Mans you said that if you don’t have a place next year in MotoGP you will go to Superbikes. Was that a hottie?

R. No, in the end it depends on what is here in the paddock, now everything is very screwed up, many riders without a bike and there are no teams, it depends on KTM if they want to renew me, in principle they have said that they are looking at yes. If there is nothing left for me here I will have to look at other options, but my dream is to stay in MotoGP.

Remy Gardner, KTM Tech3