Raúl Fernández makes his debut this season in MotoGP with the Tech3-KTM team after spending only one year, last year, in the intermediate category of Moto2, a year in which he achieved eight victories, twelve podiums and a total of seven pole positions, despite which had to settle for the runner-up.
Regardless of the results, the driving performances of the rider from Madrid last season have surrounded his debut in the senior class with enormous expectation. After the first pre-season tests last November in Jerez to get the air out of the bike, Fernández rode for five days last week in Sepang , a circuit he had not been to since 2019, when he was racing in Moto3.
From Monday to Wednesday the shakedown was held for test drivers and debutants. During those three days, Raúl accumulated a total of 150 laps on the Malaysian track, achieving a best time of 1.59.468 on the third day.
Over the weekend, in the official test with all the drivers, the Tech3 driver added another 93 laps before rain stopped practice with three hours to go.
A lot of data to be able to analyze calmly before returning to the handlebars of the RC16 this Friday with three new test days ahead at the Mandalika Circuit, in hot and humid Indonesia .
“There are many things that we have to polish, but to be honest these days I have been more disconnecting than analyzing the data. Last week’s tests were very long, they were five days and it was very stressful for us because we did not We could move for nothing, just from the hotel to the circuit, it really was a stress,” Raúl explained this Thursday from the island of Lombok .
“Here we can disconnect a little more and these days (since Tuesday) have served me more to rest than to look at the data,” admits the runner, who accumulated a total of 243 timed laps in Sepang, many hours with the gas screwed .
“In any case, the conclusions are to continue in the line that we are, I think we are on the right track, we do not lose much at any point, it is in general, and these are small details resulting from the lack of experience”.
Fernández set the 19th fastest time (1.59.180), just behind factory KTM rider Brad Binder (1.59.016) and with Miguel Oliveira 15th as the fastest of the brand (1.58.701).
“The balance was positive, compared to Brad I’m one tenth (0.164), and four (0.470) behind Miguel, so I’m not far away to be my first time in Sepang with this bike”, values the Madrid native.
Some times that can lead us to think that they were not great tests for the Austrian brand, especially because of how uncompetitive the official drivers seemed.
“It is not an issue that worries me now, the Sepang tests always have to be taken with tweezers, everyone goes fast, everyone manages the tires as they want, you do not know if to make the time in one lap they have stepped on the green, are small details. I remember that in Moto3 I had a pretty bad preseason and in the end I finished fourth in the World Championship, and in Moto2 I did not finish the IRTA tests in the top ten and ended up fighting for the title with Remy (Gardner). that I am focused on my work and following my line”.
When Motorsport.com asked Raúl about the surprising exposure of photos of MotoGP riders on social networks showing off their muscles and if this was related to the increasingly demanding physical condition to ride these bikes, the Spaniard’s response was surprising. .
“Honestly, I don’t have social networks, I don’t see them, I have a person who helps me with them. I only have whatsapp to talk to my family and nothing else”, a family that includes his brother, Adrián ‘Pitito’ Fernández , who debuts this year in the official KTM Moto3 team, following the path of Raúl.
“He is very happy with the team, he has the same opinion as me, in the end they are a great family, everyone is very close, everyone puts their shoulders to the wheel and this makes a lot of difference in the World Cup. Last year the tests cost him a lot and this year, in the first ones he has done, he finished half a second behind the fastest, so for him it is very positive. Especially after spending a very bad year, let him do it and enjoy it”, settled Raúl, who is very united to his little brother.
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