It’s been a tough start to life in the premier class for the talented Spaniard but 12th in Sunday’s German GP marked his best result to date
Expectations were sky-high when KTM announced that both Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner would be promoted to the Tech3 KTM Factory Racing squad. The pair dominated the 2021 Moto2™ World Championship, but it’s been a challenging start to life in the premier class for the pair.
More so for Fernandez, after the 21-year-old was unable to register a point in his first eight premier class races. But after back-to-back top fifteen finishes, including a career-best 12th last time out in Germany, has Fernandez finally cracked the code?
What sparked angry words between Tech3's rookie teammates?
"I enjoyed it like a kid for the first time this season," started the former Junior World Champion. "Like I did last year. Honestly, we did something this morning in the warm up. I feel better on the bike. I don't know why, but I feel better and this morning in the warm-up I was super constant.
"It was a crazy start, but at the end the pace was really good. I lost a lot of time in the first five laps. Especially on the right side of the front tyre, it was difficult to manage the temperature and I lost too much time because at the end I had more or less the same pace of Miguel and Brad. But it was no big disaster and I am really happy.
"I don't know what they changed honestly, but these are small changes. Was not a big change on the bike... it's like finding one key to open a door. It was not just the bike it was also myself that I see the bike help me a little bit and I pushed the rest and maybe for that we increased the level.
"I think it will work in Assen. Will be interesting to try in Assen because Assen I have good memories from the last year. And I think this track we will be interesting for us because we don't have many stop-and-go. We lost many time in the stop-and-go and there we don’t have too much."
The Spaniard's upturn in form comes at the right time as well, with questions surrounding his future continuing to swirl. He's been strongly linked with a move away from KTM, with Aprilia actively pursuing the 21-year-old talent. Another step in the right direction at the Dutch TT could go a long way towards securing Fernandez a spot on the 2023 MotoGP™ grid.
