MotoGP | The big surprise – Moto

When the new Petronas SRT team announced the line-up for the 2019 season, someone has turned up their nose to hear the name of Fabio Quartararo, a pilot who had won almost nothing in the lower classes and who still had much to prove. And yet, the French rider's season was a crazy and increasing parable, which led him to become the youngest poleman in MotoGP history and to fight on several occasions to fight for victory, with the final icing of the title of 'Rookie of the year '.

“At the first race in Qatar I realized that we had someone special on the team – he said Wilco Zeelenberg, head of the Petronas SRT team in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport – We would have been happy to see him constantly fighting for a place in the 10s, but instead … A decisive step forward has arrived in Jerez, when it has raised its limit and from there it has not fallen. Weaknesses? For now he must improve only the last corner, as we saw in Misano and Buriram ".

Then it's up to the same Quartararo tell about its exponential growth during the season: "The first step was the tests in Qatar. There for the first time I started to be effective when braking and making a difference. Then the Jerez race, where I managed to get the bike to the limit in every circumstance. Another very important moment was Austria, where on a rather difficult track for Yamaha I was good at saving tires. There I really started to have the experience to know how to manage without making mistakes. Then the battle of Misano against Marquez: on that occasion I managed to make 26 laps without making mistakes, with him always behind me. That was a big leap. And lastly I would put the last weekend in Japan, especially for the times made at the end of the race with used tires that I managed to do without using the rear grip but exploiting other aspects of the bike ".

"If concerning the beginning of the year, there are so many things that I did very badly, starting right from braking with front and rear together – go on El Diablo – Obviously I have no regrets, I think it is normal to go through the path of experience. Now, however, knowing that I am fighting every Sunday for the podium, seeing the happy team gives me extraordinary sensations ”.

With current results, the ambitions for 2020 can only be very high: "My bike is perfect, but if Yamaha can pull more power out we could play it with Marquez. This year in the race we saw how he managed to gain something in braking, but then he accelerated away. In Japan, however, they are working well ".