VOLUME 58 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 14, 2021 P125
experience I took from 2020
helped me a lot to stay more
consistent than usual," he told
Cycle News. "Also, the bike
improved. I improved. I have
more experience, so it helps
a lot. I think it's a matter also
of not giving up. Last year I
was like, 'Okay, this isn't the
best season.' But if I wanted to
make P6 I'd try to do better and
crash. If the bike was not able
to fight for the podium, I was
not fast enough. This year even
in Aragon fighting for eighth
position I was able to fight on
the limit. This is something that
was also really important and
why I made a step."
There has been a maturity
in how he dealt with difficulties
and adversity, from losing the
first race of the year to his team-
mate to how he reacted to Ba-
gnaia's late rally. "He's calmer
now. He's more rational," Lin
Jarvis, Yamaha's Managing
Director, said. "He understands
that getting emotional doesn't
bring you anything. If I compare
to Valentino and Maverick—Mav-
erick was very emotional and
would go from highs to
lows. But look on
the other side
of the ga-
rage, no matter what happened
to Valentino, he never really
got angry in the box. He al-
ways analyzed [and would say],
'There were some good points,
but the bad points were these.'
We could work on them. That's
the kind of approach Fabio has
taken this year."
To do this, Fabio has looked
within. Even in those worst mo-
ments at the end of last year,
Quartararo was able to shine
an analytical eye on what was
going wrong. And controlling
those emotions has been key
in 2021. As he told journalists
after being crowned this year's
champ, "This year I never really
got angry. Last year in Valencia,
the bike was not working at all,
and I arrived to the box I was tell-
ing my crew chief. He said, 'Tell
me what is going on.' But (in that
moment), when you are angry
you can't describe what your
problem is.
"This year when Maverick
(Viñales—early season team-
mate) in Assen in FP2 was
Remaining cool, even when things
have gone awry, has been a key to
Quartararo's 2021 success.
Jack Miller (43) goes for the inside, just
after the zipper on Quartararo's leather
inexplicably blew open in Barcelona.
