Cal Crutchlow will play a central role for Yamaha in the 2023 season, but wild cards are a nightmare for the British rider.
Next season Yamaha will take to the track with only two riders, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli. He will no longer have the RNF satellite team on his side, so he will have to rely more on the test driver Cal Crutchlow who, in the 2022 season, took part in six Grands Prix in place of Andrea Dovizioso. At the moment, no wild cards have been made official for the Briton, but it is easy to predict that he will be present in three weekends.
Retired from racing at the end of World 2020, never thought he’d be so busy with Yamaha. Four races in 2021 and six in 2022, for next year he will have a leading role for a tester. His three wild cards, the maximum allowed by the regulations, could provide invaluable help for the engineers who will have to work on the development of the bike. As usual, Cal Crutchlow is ironic (but not too much): “I don’t want to go back and do a joker here and there next year because it’s a nightmare. But these six races haven’t been bad, because I’ve been riding consistently“.
Three wild cards for Cal Crutchlow?
The English test rider will play a central role in the winter tests. The top management Yamaha I am more than satisfied with his work: “They knew I would take the bull by the horns. I don’t waste time“, he explained in an interview with Crash.net. “If you’re going to do a job, you need to do it right and give them direct feedback. If something’s okay, I’ll tell him it’s okay. If I think it’s trash, I’ll tell you“.
His career spanned three years with Yamaha, from 2011 to 2013, his first years in the MotoGP. And in the last two you have learned to understand this bike perfectly: “I think I know the direction they need to go. I have enough experience to do it. And when I go to rehearse, I’m not slow. This is the main thing. You have to have good rhythm and I have itadded Cal Crutchlow.
Long since Fabio Quartararo he asks for more top speed for the Yamaha M1, so as not to always have to make up for it on the straights. The character of the bike has changed significantly, it has lost its strengths, certainly not at the behest of the French champion. Franco Morbidelli was in enormous difficulty, Andrea Dovizioso preferred to give up trying to adapt. In the preseason, the men from Iwata will probably have the clearest ideas about which direction the engineers have taken during the winter break.
The MotoGP article, Crutchlow warns Yamaha: “It’s a nightmare for me” comes from Motori News.
