Fernández: "I didn't win the title because my team put stones in my way"

November 18, 2021

The Madrid native finished second in the Moto2 world championship after achieving eight victories, twelve podiums, seven pole positions and adding 307 points, a figure with which he would have won seven of the twelve titles held since the appearance of the class in the World Championship. All this in his rookie year.

Despite these dizzying figures, Raúl Fernández was four points behind in the championship, which was won by Remy Gardner with 311, five wins and three pole positions.

Motorsport.com was able to hold an extensive exclusive interview with the rider from San Martín de la Vega (10/23/2000), who will make his debut in the senior class at the age of 21 and who this Thursday and Friday will face his first official MotoGP test at Jerez Circuit at the controls of an RC16 of the KTM-Tech3 team.

When Raúl is reminded that he came close to being Moto2 champion in his first season and third complete in the World Championship, the rider winces.

“The problem we had is that no one knew how to guide us and that is why we do not have the crown,” he says. “It is clear that I have not been the champion, but morally I have in my head that I have achieved something that costs a lot. The problem we had is that all my team, and when I refer to my team I mean my mechanics, I was very lucky to find such a special group, they had no experience and nobody knew how to guide us. And that is why today we do not have the crown of champions, but morally it has been shown by the result that I am the strongest rider, with more victories, pole positions, fastest laps… Remy is the champion, he has achieved more points, but really with the speed we had and being a fish that swims against the current, honestly I feel like a moral champion. What we have done being all new and knowing each other this year is impressive”.

In an interview provided by the communication of the Red Bull KTM Ajo team , where Fernández and Gardner have raced this year, the Australian assured that the key to his title was “perseverance and intelligence”. When we ask Raúl if Remy was smarter than him, he ponders for a single second before saying, “No.”

So the question is what the champion did best to be.

“It is very easy to answer: I have lacked a hand to guide us, a hand that tells us, like small children before tripping over a stone, to be careful. A figure that would guide us and open the way for us, a figure that would like to help us in order to win, not a figure that would put stones and obstacles for us not to achieve it. That was the key.”

“It is very nice to talk about being a champion, when you have been in a category for six years, saying that I have been more intelligent. No, he has not been more intelligent, he has been the one who has had fewer stones in his way”.

And Raúl responds with a dry “Yes” when we ask him to clarify if those stones were placed by his own team. Something that deserves an explanation.

“Everyone can understand it as they want, but we know it. Sweat and tears has cost us. In the middle of the year we talked and all of them (the mechanics on their side of the box) were having a very bad time, we all wanted the season to end. In the end, everyone understands what they want and I’m not going to go into details of what happened.”

“I am very happy with the year we have had and how we have all understood each other and fought in the same boat (his side of the garage), and even putting on those stones we have been able to overcome them and win eight races as a rookie , something that no one had done” .

Raúl ‘s feelings are strong and when he explains what he has had to go through, TV images from the Ajo team box come to mind at certain moments of the season, where the faces were different depending on who won. or went to the ground.

“That reflection can guide you about what has happened. When we were in Austin , on the podium celebrating my victory, there were people (in the pits) that neither the words nor the applause came out.”

“It’s difficult, because when you’re a pilot and you fight for a dream you need people by your side who really believe in you, and who don’t put stones in your way”.

This Thursday, Raúl will get on a Tech3 KTM RC16 2022, without the signing of the contract with the Austrian house having been officially announced.

“I don’t know, I don’t know if that contract has been signed and I don’t want to know either. The truth is that I am very happy, that KTM has formed a great family and I would like to be here for many years with them. Growing up with them from the Rookies Cup and reaching MotoGP is very nice”.

A few words that imply that KTM is outside these ‘stones’.

“There have been some very difficult moments in my Moto2 year, because of people who did not believe in me, they made me doubt the brand a lot, but in the end we are going to go with KTM in the same direction, rowing all together, and I am very motivated”, Raúl ends this first part of the interview, which will continue.

(Click on this link or scroll through the images to see Raúl Fernández’s debut in MotoGP at the Jerez test)

Raul Fernandez, KTM Tech3