MotoGP, Tito Rabat: “Thanks to Zarco, Avintia is no longer a private team”

Moto2 World Champion in 2014, Esteve “Tito” Rabat won 13 victories in this category and reached the podium 33 times, before moving to MotoGP for fun in 2016. He finished ninth in Argentina in 2016 on Honda , then seventh at Termas de Rio Hondo and eighth in Dallas in 2018. Last year he finished ninth in Catalonia.

Tito does not have to engage in long and exhausting searches for a sponsor because the family jewelry business, located in Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Valencia, Tarragona and Ibiza can pay for its MotoGP seasons without any problem. The Avintia team is the lucky beneficiary, which rents a Ducati in Rabat. His teammate Karel Abraham having left, Johann Zarco arrived, corresponding to Ducati's need to have good riders in the future, after having lost Marc Márquez, Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo for the years to come.

The Italian manufacturer therefore has an impressive armada with Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller, Pecco Bagnaia and now Johann Zarco. Tito Rabat is satisfied with this, after scoring 23 points in 2019 (compared to 9 for Abraham).

“In 2014, I managed to stay focused, I had a very clear objective. My life was like a race, I would come home and train, go to the races and then be home. In the end, I was only focused on one thing, I managed to achieve very good mental stability, everything was going well with the team, no one could disrupt them and I got the best out of myself , the team and the bike » explained Rabat to Ernest Riveras of DAZN.

During this 2014 season, his teammate was Mika Kallio, who is currently testing for KTM in MotoGP. “With Mika it was good. There are two types of teammates, those who focus on fighting on the track and those who focus on fighting on the track and also in the pit. I like them less, but we learn from everything, and I'm also improving in the stand. Kallio was a key player that year, he was a super focused guy, I never heard him, he was super professional and fought on the track, with a lot of respect. He wasn't your friend, he was your rival. I learned a lot from him. Thanks to him, I also got 100% from myself. »

Tito Rabat regrets not being able to make it to the premier class after winning the title, as he stayed in Moto2 for one more year. “I stayed to defend the title, but I think I should have gone to MotoGP, I had the opportunity, and I didn't do it. It is very easy to talk about the past. I stayed and failed. In the end, I had a good year and fought for the title until the end, but I broke my wrist in training. »

The Reale Avintia man has made it clear he has received offers for MotoGP. “I spoke to Aspar, I had two or three offers, especially at the start of the year. I even spoke to Pramac at the start of the season, but from a long way away. I was focused on my moment, and nothing else. On the one hand, it was good, but on the other, I raced with the Marc VDS team, with a non-competitive bike. Ultimately, I was always in MotoGP with private teams because of that, just thinking about racing and nothing else. »

Thanks to Johann Zarco, his new teammate, Tito appreciates the support that Ducati has decided to give to Avintia. “It's no longer a private team, it's also thanks to the arrival of Zarco, I have the same treatment as him, and that can be an opportunity for me. »

“In the first pre-season tests, in Malaysia, on the third day of the test, I was at 1.2, and in Qatar I finished at 0.8, I have never been at this level before, I always finished at a second and a half. The equality of bikes and riders this year is a good opportunity for me and the teams behind. »

 

 

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