News & already known before the seventh MotoGP round in Barcelona
On April 5th, our website announced what was only officially confirmed almost two months later: Remy Gardner has his place at Tech 3 for the next MotoGP season. The son of the 500cc world champion Wayne from 1987 is definitely following in his footsteps. So absolutely nothing new and the extension of KTM with Brad Binder’s contract is not a surprise either. The fact that an agreement was reached by 2024 is also not surprising, as they had lost the super talent Jorge Martin to Ducati in the previous year. What is more interesting is that Binder fell through the rust in the “KTM-Ajo junior program”, which was often overwhelmed by the oranges with much self-praise. Without money from his family, which was privately invested in continuation, the South African would have disappeared from racing.
The label fraudsters struck again
Against this background, as far as Binder is concerned, it is all the more surprising why they now wanted to sell Remy Gardner’s change to the public as a new product of their “own talent factory”. It seems like another pathetic attempt to fool the public with it. A quick look back at the Australian’s career is enough to see that he had absolutely nothing to do with KTM in Moto2 before 2021. Remy had only switched from Onexox TKKR Kalex to the oranges this season because he had a promotion clause in the MotoGP contract there. He already met the conditions in the first 2 races of Losail, which sealed his promotion from then on.
The situation at Tech 3 is abundantly transparent
After Iker Lecuona was publicly criticized by KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer and Hervé Poncharal as team boss of the Tech 3 KTM racing team, it was almost clear who had to make room for the young Australian. At most, that will change something if the young Spaniard makes it onto the podium in one of the next races and Petrux has a sporty crash. Otherwise, Danilo Petrucci will either be kept or replaced by another young talent like Raul Fernandez. With the Italian, too, everything depends on the next Grand Prix and whether he can continue to confirm the upward trend that began at Le Mans. Compared to his team-mate, he currently has one more with two top ten results, and he is 6 positions ahead in the intermediate championship ranking.
Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) – the world championship leader before the seventh race of the season with a look back at the Italian GP:
„In short, there was a lot of emotion in Mugello. It was a great day for us, but it was incredibly difficult to stay focused. To be honest, I don’t know how to keep this pace myself, because every lap you think of Jason Dupasquier. It’s not an easy thing and I think all the drivers drove for him. My thoughts are with his family. My strategy was to see what position we would get with the holeshot device. I’m super happy with it and in the first corner I was second. It was in 2019 when I started the race from second on the grid and I think I was eighth or ninth in the first corner after that. So it was incredible to get into the first corner in fourth gear and in second position today. At first, I drove quietly after Pecco and when I saw him fall, I tried to give the maximum for the next five laps. But then Johann Zarco overtook me. After that, I told myself to ride aggressive attacks to open a gap. Then I did everything to be the first to get into the first corner and I managed to do so afterwards. So I’m really happy about my race.“
The background noise around Marc Marquez does not subside
The parallels between Jorge Lorenzo in his last season at Repsol Honda and Marc Marquez after his comeback are growing eerie. In the meantime, hardly anyone speaks of his achievements at number 93, not even himself, but only about his handicaps. What is unfortunate about that was his testimony when he had full-bodied announced before the second Jerez GP last year that he was returning stronger than ever. This was not tied to a time condition and many critics claim, not completely wrongly, that he simply came back much too early. For a 6-time MotoGP world champion, different standards apply than that the fans and the public have to get used to results just within the top ten.
There was hardly any pressure to return early
With Stefan Bradl a substitute driver was in the starting blocks, who had achieved a better result at the Grand Prix of Portugal 2020 than Marc the year after. Everyone would have understood if the Catalan had only climbed to his almost 300 hp MotoGP once he’s really at 100 percent. But in the ears of many today it sounds like running from excuse to excuse. Especially before the races, there was a noticeably low stacking, after which he nevertheless attacked fully, which was already impressive from Portimão. There was no sign of a decrease, but with full commitment right up to the last lap. Then came the first crashes in Jerez and then two at the Le Mans race, and the 93 didn’t get far in Mugello either. Now he complains publicly over his shoulder, which is why he makes himself the second Jorge Lorenzo in the eyes of many. We and his fans would be very happy if they soon only talked about his performance and not about any ailments.
>GP Barcelona preview: see separate report on this page.
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