MotoGP, Exclusive interview with Christian Sarron: “Fabio Quartararo could get on the podium in his first season”

After the first three overseas Grands Prix of the season, the World Championship arrives in Europe this week in Jerez. Many interesting topics are on the agenda, including Christian Sarron, 250 World Champion in 1984, winner of the German 500 GP in 1985, and author of five incredible consecutive pole positions in 500 in 1988 in Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Yugoslavia and France, ahead of Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey and the other greats of the time.

Christian, Álex Rins impressed with his victory in Austin, especially with Valentino Rossi breathing down his neck and threatening him until the last lap. Is Rins a future great?

“For now, he has won a Grand Prix, as did Maverick Vinales. We have to see if he will win others. Firstly, Austin is a fairly unusual circuit, with many tight turns. We must not forget that it was drawn by Kevin schwantz who loved small corners and rough circuits. There are also big curves, but above all it is a rough circuit with a lot of braking.”

“As this circuit is atypical, we are not sure that Rins will do the same kind of performance elsewhere, but we already sensed good potential in this driver last year. World Champion, we don’t know, but other podiums, that’s for sure.”

“He still benefited from favorable conditions. That is to say, if Marc Márquez hadn't fallen, he was unbeatable. I think Crutchlow was in a position to be a good second.”

“Valentino Rossi is very strong, it’s even surprising. We can only congratulate him, but with his age he has shown his limits. Ten years earlier, Álex Rins would not have resisted Valentino Rossi. He wasn't very aggressive at the end of the race, maybe he had problems, I don't know. He was overtaken and let go in a rather astonishing way. When he has victory in his sights, normally Rossi is a fighter. But there it was not. It was surprising.”

Valentino Rossi has twice finished second and is only three points behind the Championship leader. Do you think he can be World Champion this year?

“You should never bury Valentino Rossi ! He is chasing this tenth title, he really wants it. His motivation and his performances are surprising. When we say it’s over, it always surprises.”

“Despite everything, I think that to beat Márquez, it will be really very difficult. Márquez would have to have a lot of worries, problems, mistakes like the one he made in Austin. If he had been in a fight, he would have been less distracted and probably would not have made this mistake.”

“Being all alone at the front and prancing around in front, as he had done in Argentina, made things seem easy for him. Marquez had won every time in Texas, and I think he had a moment of loss of concentration. He braked a little too late, he reached the limit and a little off the line. He still tried to reach the rope point, but it didn’t go through.”

“He is a very intelligent driver, extremely thoughtful. We see it in his management of races and championships. We saw that even when there were controversies with Rossi, he always reacted intelligently. With the talent and the machine he has, it will be very hard to beat him.”

Fabio Quartararo qualified fifth in Qatar for his first MotoGP race, and with an eighth place in Argentina and then a seventh in the United States, he now precedes riders like Maverick Viñales, Jorge Lorenzo and Franco Morbidelli, as well as all the rookies. Is Fabio gifted?

“We have known for a long time that he is gifted. He was not yet 15 when he was CEV Moto3 Champion in Spain. He won everything. He was not 16 when he arrived in the Grand Prix. During his first GP, he fought at the front and could have won. He made the mistake of taking the lead one lap before the end, which was just the wrong thing to do. Then in Jerez he could have won. So from his debut in Grands Prix, he showed enormous potential. Afterwards he had ups and downs.”

“To answer your question, yes, he is gifted. And not only is he gifted, but he has a Yamaha M1 that suits him perfectly. It's a great machine, if you look at the performances of Morbidelli, of Fabio, of everyone who started on it in MotoGP, whether it's the full factory machine or the satellite bike. We saw it clearly when we believed that Johann Zarco was going to win his first MotoGP race in Qatar.”

“It’s a machine that seems, compared to others, quite easy to adjust. Fabio, despite his little experience in MotoGP, always manages to do well, in qualifying and in the race. In my opinion, he does not yet have the experience and physical endurance that MotoGP requires, but obviously by working he will be able to create a surprise and why not get on the podium aboard this Yamaha in his first season.”

Johann Zarco's style doesn't seem suited to the KTM, and vice versa...

" It's the least we can say ! Pol Espargaró still does good things, so the comparison for Johann is difficult at the moment. Espargaró does much better than him on the same machine, but even Oliveira, who is a beginner at Tech 3 and who has less experience than Johann because he is younger in Grand Prix and has just arrived in MotoGP, is on his heels.

“That means that for the moment this KTM does not suit Johann. We say a lot that you have to get used to the machine, that the rider has to adjust it the way that suits him... Yes and no... Yes and no, I think that there are riders who are capable of adapt to their machine, whatever it is – I am of course thinking of Marc Márquez, Casey Stoner and others.”

“Johann obviously doesn't feel comfortable riding this machine and he isn't able to do good things with it. I wonder if the mind hasn't taken a hit. Because I know that Johann also works mentally, he has shown it several times. There it is frankly surprising to see the performance of this machine which is not doing so bad with Espargaró, but on the other hand with Johann we see that in the clock on certain sessions he is not so bad, but I find that if we Compared with what Johann has done in the past, he is out of place. It would be too easy to only criticize the machine. Johann is not in his right mood.”

Andrea Dovizioso has not won any GP this year, he qualified thirteenth in Texas, and here he is at the head of the World Championship. Can he be a solid leader, including next Sunday at Jerez where Ducati has only won once, in 2006?

“Dovizioso is good, we’ve seen that over the last two years. He has an excellent machine. He may be capable of winning on certain circuits, but there are definitely tracks where things go much less well. This has just been the case in Austin, and it will be the case in my opinion on other circuits. His performances are a bit up and down, which is not the case of a Márquez who goes everywhere quickly, nor the case of a Rossi even if it is a little less true because for example last year in Aragon he was not well.”

“Dovizioso, on the other hand, makes very few mistakes. He is intelligent. So if the others make mistakes, he will have a chance. But if Marquez doesn't make a mistake, frankly it will be hard for him. Even Valentino Rossi can beat Dovizioso in a championship in my opinion. Besides, he often showed it. But if Márquez has no problems, for Dovizioso as for Rossi, it will be hard.”

Video below: Valentino Rossi taking pole position at Jerez in 2016 (he would go on to win this GP)

Last year's incident in Jerez with Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Dovizioso. Note that this Virage 6 (previously named “Dry Sac”) was renamed after Dani Pedrosa on December 17. Humor in the second degree?

Photos © motogp.com / Dorna