After a weekend without races, the MotoGP World Championship faces the French Grand Prix from next Friday, the first since Fabio Quartararo was crowned world champion in the queen class, with the Frenchman leading the general and, for the first time since the pandemic, with the capacity completely open to support the local idol.
“Coming into Le Mans in this position I think is going to be crazy, I can’t wait for the weekend to start,” admits the 23-year-old.
Quartararo debuted in MotoGP in 2019 with hardly any victories in the intermediate classes, his emergence as a rider coinciding with the pandemic, so he has never had a home grand prix with fans devoted to him.
“I really want to race there, I’ve never really done it with fans apart from the first year, but I wasn’t in the same situation. I was a rookie and I was trying to get good results. I’ve never experienced a grand prix in France with fans. supporting me, now I’m going to arrive as the leader of the championship”, in addition to being the current champion.
Quartararo’s in MotoGP has been a meteoric career. After failing to succeed in either Moto3 or Moto2, the Frenchman unexpectedly rose to the queen class in 2019 at the hands of the then Petronas team, Yamaha’s satellite, and as a clear second rider, after Franco Morbidelli.
However, the figure of the Devil has been revalued in three years from zero to infinity, becoming the first French MotoGP champion. A road that was not a red carpet for Nice.
“I had the opportunity to go up to MotoGP when I was 19 years old, and when you’re so young, if you don’t do well, they drop you down to Moto2 or they send you to SBK,” explains Fabio.
The boy knew how to take advantage of the decline of Valentino Rossi, whom he replaced in 2021 in the official Yamaha team, the injury of Marc Márquez or the lack of a clear reference on the grid of the senior class.
“What I didn’t want was to go down to Moto2 or go to SBK, I wanted to continue where I like the most, which is MotoGP. So, more than taking advantage of those circumstances, what I had in mind was to stay here for a long time, like this that I myself fought to be first in the top 10, then in the top 5, to achieve podiums and victories”, he adds.
A path of overcoming in which he has not stopped learning continuously.
“You always learn, on Sunday in Jerez that I did the whole race behind Pecco (Bagnaia) learn. Maybe you don’t know it, it’s unconscious, but you see things that you apply automatically later,” he says.
After a somewhat hesitant start to the season with only one podium (Indonesia) in the first four races, the arrival of the European World Championship earned him the chance to win his first race of the course in Portimao and take the lead, a position that he consolidated with second place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“The one in Jerez was a very good race for us, there was no fight because I knew that I couldn’t overtake Pecco with the rear tire. But I knew how to be patient, keep the pressure and learn to drive in very difficult conditions, because we suffered with the overheating of the front rubber and heat”.
Some results that confirm Quartararo, once again, as a clear candidate to fight for the title and that have led him to earn the respect of the entire paddock, where no one doubts the Frenchman’s potential.
“When you already have a world title, you are in an official team, you have achieved a few victories, you go fast and you are constant, I would not say that you have the respect, because we respect all the drivers, but you do have one more point that leads to rivals to think: ‘be careful with this one who is going to touch our balls'”.
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Dorna
Photo de: Dorna
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Photo by: Dorna
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Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Photo by: Dorna
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
