Augusto Fernández entered the MotoGP World Championship last year with GasGas Tech3. His teammate was Pol Espargaró, providing an experienced reference. However, the veteran suffered an injury in the second practice of the year, leaving him sidelined for several months, and it fell to the rookie to lead Hervé Poncharal’s team on the track.
After a year where his best result was fourth place at the French GP, the Spanish rider considers there are reasons to be pleased: ‘It was a positive season. Pre-season expectations are one thing, but I was happy with how things went. Especially in the final phase, I felt stronger. I have to be satisfied because the level is good, and we continue to improve’, he told SPEEDWEEK.com.
In his debut year, Fernández admitted he was learning until the end in a reality vastly different from what he knew in Moto2. When asked if this constant learning was justified by the differences between the bikes in each class, #37 replied:
– I think so. When I talk to Brad [Binder], Pol, or Joan [Mir], riders I have a good relationship with, it wasn’t like this when they entered MotoGP. It was a bike, and it was much easier to ride – much better than the Moto2 bike, more power, better tires, everything was better overall. It still is the case, but it’s very difficult for me to move around the performance window. It doesn’t take much, and it goes very, very bad, or the feeling is very strange – with tyre pressure, temperature, all the wings and aerodynamics… it’s very good, but sometimes it also goes very bad very quickly.