Cal Crutchlow, who will turn 37 next Saturday, retired at the end of the difficult 2020 season, marked by the pandemic, when Honda did not renew his factory contract to race with LCR. Immediately, Yamaha bet on his experience and professionalism to offer him the position of tester at Iwata’s house, replacing Jorge Lorenzo.
In 2021, the Briton already had to abandon his retirement from competition to replace, for four races, the injured Franco Morbidelli in the Petronas satellite structure: Styria (17th), Austria (17th), Silverstone (17th) and Aragon (16th) , failing to score any points before, for the second time, saying goodbye to MotoGP.
But again this year Yamaha had to use the Coventry rider as Andrea Dovizioso resigned from competing and announced his retirement, which came after the San Marino Grand Prix.
Since then, Crutchlow, despite the fact that it was not in his plans to return to the World Cup beyond doing so in a specific substitution, he had to change his mentality and reconvert himself, at 36 years old, into a first level athlete. And the three-time race winner in the premier class, with 19 podium finishes and four pole positions to his credit, is not disappointing at all.
In its debut, in Aragón, it already improved its best classification of 2021, by finishing 14th adding two points. In Japan (15th) he added again, his worst result so far came in Thailand (19th) with rain, while this past double has resulted in a 13th position in Phillip Island, and a 12th in Sepang.
In just five races Cal has scored ten points, just five fewer than Dovizioso has in 14 appearances, two fewer than team-mate Darryn Binder all season, and exactly the same as Franco Morbidelli in this span of five grands prix.
“I am satisfied because I do my job and I accept it,” explained the Briton on Sunday after achieving his best result of the year so far, and the best since the 2020 Teruel GP, held on October 25 of that year.
Crutchlow was not convinced by the idea of returning permanently, but once the assignment from Yamaha was accepted, he took it on with great professionalism.
“That’s the main thing, that you accept it and do it. When you commit you can’t do it halfway, because if you do that in this championship, you get injured,” he said to highlight the level of difficulty involved in riding a MotoGP.
From Dovizioso’s surprise announcement that he was retiring (August 4) until Cal had to get on his bike (September 16), enough time passed for the Briton to prepare himself physically and, above all, mentally, to return to compete in the elite.
“These are not races where you can say: ‘ok, I’m going to stay in the back and just ride calmly’. If you do that and you don’t activate the tires, or push, you hurt yourself here,” he warns before add: “Besides, that would end up throwing you off center and lead you to make mistakes”.
In his role as tester and substitute rider, Crutchlow knows that Yamaha may ask him to race, as he did in 2021 and now, even though he knows that the current level of the category makes it almost impossible to get to the front.
Despite this, Crutchlow is offering performance that no one could even imagine with a bike that has become a true hieroglyph for the brand’s racers.
“I think I’m competitive enough, but not to ride at the front. I’m not stupid, I retired two years ago. I knew I couldn’t go back to racing every weekend and be at the front. But I’m happy with my job and Yamaha too.”
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