Fabio Quartararo takes stock of a special season but one whose conclusion still ended with the loss of his MotoGP World Champion title. In complete transparency and honesty, the Frenchman divides his campaign into three phases which could be described as follows: disillusionment, revolt and rupture. Where and when was it made? Maybe not where we think...
fabio quartararo fought valiantly with the weapons that Yamaha gave him, and which were none other than those stored in the 2021 arsenal. An unpleasant surprise which marks the first stage of his campaign and which he defines as follows: “ I started the first four races with a negative attitude and I thought about 2020 » explains the teammate Franco Morbidelli. " We had taken no steps forward » he adds in particular about the engine situation.
It will be recalled that due to reliability problems, the new engine had to be abandoned by Yamaha which used the same powertrain as in 2020 and 2021… “ I said to myself, this is boring, that I won't be able to fight for the world title this year. We didn't get many world championship points in the first few races either ».
Then the pilot reacted, demonstrating his fighting spirit. And this is the second phase of his journey marked by revolt: “ then I said to myself: we have this available. We have to make the most of it " " remember Quarterly. In Portimao, he celebrated his first victory of the season. Then the tricolor finished second in Jerez and Mugello. Victories at Barcelona and the Sachsenring followed. Despite the failure at Assen, the M1 official entered the summer break as championship leader. He was then 21 points ahead of Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), 58 on John Zarco (Pramac-Ducati) and 66 on bagnaia...
Fabio Quartararo: “ I don't want to say that it derailed me, but...«
But he ended up giving in, to the point of breaking. On this level, it defines what was the decisive step, which changed the course of things. On Motorsport-total, he tells : " it was complicated at Silverstone in the second half of the season. It was good in Austria ". And then there was this blow to morale… “ In Misano I saw that we were very fast. We didn't have any problems with the bike, but we finished fifth... It was very difficult because it was only a fifth place. We thought then that we had not taken the step forward even though the competition had improved a lot. It was very frustrating ».
« I don't want to say that it derailed me, but we had a very good pace and we couldn't do more than fifth place », sighs Quarterly. " It was really difficult. We made a mistake in Thailand. And in Australia, as a pilot, I made mistakes ". We know the rest and here is the lesson he draws: “ there were a lot of moments this year where I saw that we didn't have the potential to win. I wanted to attack too hard. I learned a lot in the future. We must remember this so as not to make these mistakes again ».
After 20 races, fabio quartararo (Yamaha) finished 17 points behind the new World Champion Francis Bagnaia (Ducati). He won three races in the 2022 season. He also reached the podium five times. During qualifying, the Frenchman only achieved one pole position. In total, he started from the front row five times. On three occasions he did not score any points. For his part, bagnaia had five abandonments. Thus, in a quarter of the races, the Italian did not finish. But he had seven victories and a total of ten podiums. The qualification record is also significantly better. bagnaia took five pole positions and started eleven times from the front row. Finally, Ducati won the constructors' championship with 192 points ahead of Yamaha .
