For many, the problems encountered at the start of the year by Fabio Quartararo are solely linked to his choice to change teams. However, the latter, reigning world champion with Danny Kent, remember, took advantage of the winter to change bikes from Honda to KTM.
To find out a little more, or even a lot more, and even look back at the beginnings of the French Grand Prix champion, we interviewed Eduardo Martin, the rich Spanish businessman who discovered and has supported “El Diablo” since its beginnings in Spanish championship.
Eduardo, can you give us your vision of Fabio's first season in Grand Prix?
Edward Martin: “We started with very different expectations from what we could read in the press. We could then read that we wanted to be world champion… But no!
In his entourage, including Alzamora (team manager of his team Estrella Galicia), everyone said that Fabio had the talent to be able to fight for the title. But it was very different than putting pressure on yourself to do it!
Last year, he rode looking forward to the next race as much as possible, but not further, and he didn't have the pressure that the press reported. He just had the normal pressure of a driver making his debut in the world championship. I'm with him every day, and I could see it in his face; It was the normal pressure of racing, and it's very different from the pressure that weighs on someone who thinks everyone expects him to be world champion.
Only journalists talked about that, but not us.
I believe that here, there is not a single driver who is in the world championship to play. Everyone is trying to give their best, and that's how we started the season. But only by looking to see what we could improve next week compared to last week. And that’s the same thing we do now.
So, he rode in 2013 with an FTR-Honda, he rode in 2014 with a Honda, and in 2015, we thought it was going to be easier to be at the front. And the times were very good at the start of the season. What happened next?
Le Mans was the inflection point. He took pole, and the bike was magnificent. Really. He came to talk to me after qualifying and said: “Eduardo, she’s perfect. You must not touch anything at all”. Then, in the race, as soon as he hit the gas, the engine power was gone. He didn't recognize the bike, it wasn't the same one anymore, the one that had taken pole. He said to himself “I haven’t forgotten how to drive between pole and the race”
and, completely frustrated, he made a mistake.
At the start of the season, I told him “Fabio, statistically, all drivers who have two blank results greatly reduce their possibility of achieving a good final result. You have to keep in mind that if, during a race, you don't feel well or the bike doesn't feel good, or simply it's not the day, you should never go to the limit. You have to keep a cool head. »
But in France, with everyone, of course he wanted to show everything and did what he shouldn't do. He rode at the limit, exploited everything the bike could give and more, and crashed.
This was the start of discussions on the bike settings with the team. I will never say it wasn't a good team; It’s a magnificent team and all the people are magnificent. However, there was not sufficient communication, the alchemy, for the indications given by the pilot to be clearly heard. It was complicated. So we continued like that throughout the season, and I had meetings with the team so they could tell me what was going on.
For example, in Barcelona, I can tell you one very concrete thing; Fabio had the track record, obtained in the Spanish championship. But it was impossible for him to be at the front at the Grand Prix. So, what happened? It was not possible to have good settings throughout the weekend. After the tests, Fabio said “I don’t recognize the bike, it’s unbelievable. I drove here, but it's not possible here. » And in the race, it was the same.
So after that one, I went to see the team and they said “ Eduardo, it was impossible for us to find the right settings. »
I answered them “Look, I’m not an engineer, but I use my common sense; If, with the same temperature conditions as last year and the same engine, we have settings that work well, why don't we put last year's settings directly? »
At that moment, I have to say that it was me who started to put a little pressure on the team, because it wasn't working. I know there is a lot of politics and a lot of things, but we are here to have the feeling that everyone is heading in the same direction. I then said to Emilio (Alzamora): » this little one, who has a cool head today, will one day have a hot head and fall and hurt himself. This (game? day?) is over. »
And that's what finally happened in Misano and the season ended like that. Because of the contract with the Monlau team, our intention was to finish last year, then, with everything that had happened, it opened the door for me to listen and discuss with everyone.
Normally, we had to go with Aki Ajo and I informed Emilio and Leopard (both then on Honda). The Leopard team manager spoke with Honda and told them “if you don't do anything to keep a boy like that with Honda, maybe it's up to me to think about changing from Honda to KTM”.
Dance what contexts, we signed with Leopard which was still Honda. So it’s not that we left Honda. And I must say that in the contract, we had the right to refuse if the team changed from Honda to KTM.
Then the team asked us " what do you think? ».
We knew that with KTM we wouldn't have the references for this year, and that it was a risk, but Fabio is young and he has the talent. I wanted him to be with a company like KTM which is energetic and goes to battle; and this year they are still ahead! I wanted to have the feeling that the team was really by his side. The alchemy with the engineer, it’s clear that it’s the thing we didn’t have last year, and with Christian (Lundberg), we already had it. This was the situation last year. »
To be continued…
