Exclusive interview with Fabio Quartararo
It’s unlike anything we have ever seen. Never before has a debut come with as much expectation as the one Fabio Quartararo is set for. Quartararo is France’s great hope in world championship motorcycle racing. The expectation and pressure is astronomical, despite the fact he is yet to complete a world championship lap – prompting comparisons to some of the best riders this sport has ever seen.
Shortly after dominating the first Moto3 test of the season, the motorcycling world was awash with questions, a lot more questions than answers regarding the fresh-faced French fifteen year old. Was he the new Marc Marquez? Is he going to win the title in his first season? Questions that seem crazy when being asked of who won’t turn 16 – the legal age to race in the World Championship – until the day after the third round of the season in Argentina. Despite more questions than answers, the entire motorcycle world will have their eyes firmly fixed on the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda, with the number 20 on the front.
Four world titles in five years by Marc Marquez, and the Moto3 title won by younger brother Alex last season has seen the Marquez mantelpiece get a major revamp over the past five years, leaving many questioning if we are set for a period of domination by a pair of brothers unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. That was until Fabio Quartararo entered the fray. Those who have seen him have said he can win it all. He can do to Moto3, what Marc Marquez has done to MotoGP. They will be expecting similar performances to those he managed on course to back-to-back Spanish Championships. Those who hadn’t heard of him have been left wondering just what all the fuss is about.
The people who know about Quartararo aren’t short in forthcoming with compliments for the French teenager who will’ve no doubt helped create the ideology that he is Marc Marquez 2.0. Valentino Rossi has tipped him to win the Moto3 title, whilst the men with opinions at HRC, Shuhei Nakamoto and Livio Suppo have already tracked out his path to MotoGP. Herve Poncharal claims he’s never seen a French rider with this much talent, whilst competitors such as Jonas Folger and Romano Fenati consider him to man to beat in Moto3 this season.
Couple those compliments, with the fact the Grand Prix Commission decided last August to lower the age limit required for a reigning CEV champion to enter Grand Prix – unofficially labelled in some quarters as the ‘Quartararo rule’ – and you quickly realise that this teenager in question isn’t your average ‘prodigy’, he is a genuine superstar already.
What does the man, or boy, himself think of this praise, and the links with Marquez, a back-to-back MotoGP World Champion? “It’s very exciting, but I can’t be compared to Marc Marquez,” he said with a hint of embarrassment that people are already making these comparisons. “Marc is a four time World Champion, and I am just the Spanish champion. It is very exciting, and it’s certainly motivation. But I don’t think we can really compare the two of us. He’s the best rider in the world, and I’m just a rookie. I need to learn a lot before I can be compared with him.”
Despite, very wisely, distancing himself from the Marquez comparisons, Quartararo’s rise into the World Championship is almost unparalleled. Marquez didn’t have this level of fanfare heading into the World Championship back in 2008. In fact it took Marc Marquez two years to win his first race in Grand Prix’s a record Quartararo looks certain to better. He will be going into, essentially the ‘factory Honda’ Moto3 outfit, run by Jordi Arquer, with the personal backing of Emilio Alzamora. Quartararo has the right people around him, he has all the right kit under him, and he’s just walked into a World Championship winning garage.
Moving from the junior team in CEV into the full World Championship team, taking the seat of outgoing 2014 Moto3 World Champion Alex Marquez. With Marquez moving on, he hasn’t been shy in helping Quartararo with his transition from CEV to Moto3. “My crew chief, Xabi and I, have both spoken to Alex, and he’s been very helpful. When we arrived in Jerez [for the second test – Ed] we looked at a lot of the telemetry and data of Alex
, in relation to my laps.
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