When Raúl Fernández graduated to MotoGP in 2022, many paddock people (including, I suspect, the man himself) thought he might be the next Marc Márquez. After all, he had broken Márquez’s rookie Moto2 victory and podium records the previous season.
Fernández’s 2021 Moto2 performance with Aki Ajo’s Red Bull KTM team certainly suggested he was another special one, because the jump from a Moto3 bike (60 horsepower, 80 kilos and skinny tyres) to a Moto2 bike (140 horsepower, 150 kilos and big, fat tyres) is so big it’s confounded many Moto3 champions.
Danny Kent, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Izan Guevera and Jaume Masià all disappeared without trace when they moved up to Moto2. And that’s why Moto3 bikes will soon change from 250cc singles to 700cc twins, to narrow the gap between the two classes.
Thus Fernández’s eight Moto2 victories and four further podiums boded well.
Fernández certainly seemed to think so. There was a real cockiness about him at that time. Cockiness isn’t a bad thing in a motorcycle racer. In fact you won’t make it as a motorcycle racer unless you are cocky, even if you keep that cockiness merely burning on the inside, rather than glowing on the outside.
Perhaps the 21-year-old thought it would just happen for him in MotoGP. After all, he certainly has the talent, but talent isn’t the deciding factor that some people think it is, because many talented riders don’t make it in this sport, because talent is nothing without gritty determination and a pitiless work ethic.
Sure enough, while Fernández had happily jumped the chasm from Moto3 to Moto2 he was in trouble when he climbed aboard a MotoGP bike, a Tech3 KTM RC16. He hit his head so hard in a massive crash during 2022 pre-season testing at Mandalika that his head was visibly bruised.
Fernández celebrates victory with his Trackhouse crew
Trackhouse
Incredibly, MotoGP’s medical team allowed him to continue riding. Only when he crashed again – “My speed reflexes were not good” – did medics withdrew him from the tests.
Fernández basically gave up after his first few races in MotoGP. Why? Because he hadn’t wanted to ride an RC16 in the first place. He had wanted to sign with the Petronas Yamaha team, but KTM enacted a clause in his contract to keep him in their colours.
The RC16 was less user-friendly than a YZR-M1, so Fernández soon told KTM bosses he would be going elsewhere in 2023, contract or not. He simply survived 2022, trying not to crash, never even bothering the top ten and finishing 22nd overall. His best results were 12th-place finishes at Sachsenring and Valencia, where he was nearly a second off the winning pace.
Fernandez’s 2023 Petronas Yamaha ride became an RNF Aprilia ride when team boss Razlan Razall switched bikes, from the struggling YZR-M1 to the burgeoning RS-GP, and his results improved, a bit. He completed his second year in the premier-class 20th, squeezing into the top a few times, and ending the season with an out-of-nowhere ride to fifth at Valencia, beating Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales, Aleix Espargaró and others.