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Less than three weeks before the start of the season, it’s time for Remy Gardner to make a stop in Misano and unveil – along with his teammate, Dominique Aegerter – the livery that will be worn by the Yamaha GRT team in 2024. A year that promises to be really satisfying for the team led by Filippo Conti and for the 25-year-old Australian, one of the revelations in Yamaha during the winter tests.
“I don’t know what exactly I did to improve so much. After a season, I understand the bike better, and I feel more comfortable, and everything comes more automatically, Therefore, I can more easily focus on more things, instead of just the basic aspects. Now that I’m more confident with the bike and the tires, everything comes more naturally to me”, Gardner observed, commenting on the excellent pace he had in Jerez and in Portimao.
A performance that didn’t surprise Remy, who's well aware of his potential.
“Given how we had finished the round in Jerez last year, I honestly expected to be even faster on that track. But we were focused on the program and trying out new parts. Let’s say that if we had focused on the time, we would have been faster. We did it more in Portimao, and I think we were rather fast,” Remy said, treasuring the knowledge he acquired his first season in the Superbike World Championship: “We learned a lot of lessons from a technical viewpoint, on tires and on many other things.”
The GRT team rider's analysis of the past season can only be positive, but Remy still somewhat regrets not being able to get on the podium.
“I knew it was going to be difficult, but I expected at least a podium or a third place. We came close, but not close enough. We were very unlucky, but the speed is there. So, this year it’s just a matter of putting everything together,” the 25-year-old rider said, setting the bar for the next championship: “The expectation is to improve compared to last season. We’re making progress, but the tests are just tests, and we still have to start racing, so we’re keeping our feet on the ground. I don’t think winning is going to be easy this year, also because I still lack a bit of experience. We’re going to proceed step by step right now, and we'll think about it when the opportunity presents itself.”
To accelerate his progress, Gardner will also be able to count on the data of the six-time world champion, Jonathan Rea, a new entry for Yamaha.
“It’ll certainly help me and, in the tests, I was already able to learn some things by looking at Johnny’s data in some corners. It’s good to have him on the team, also because I think he has a more ‘normal’ style than Toprak, and this will certainly be an advantage for us and will allow us to learn and gain time,” the Australian rider confirmed. “Right now, it’s difficult to say if there’s something that has struck me about him, because we followed our program without looking too much at others. I’ll tell you after the first races.”
Remy was already surprised by his friend, Pedro Acosta: a great revelation in the Shakedown in Sepang.
“I was already impressed and, at this point, I expected everything from him, since he was among the fastest after only two test sessions,” he admitted. “He’s impressive, and he really surprised me. It definitely won’t be easy, given that the level in the MotoGP is very high, and they’ve all been very fast since Friday. There's a very large learning curve, but I think he’ll be able to do extraordinary things this year.”
