Gardner wants to prove ‘you-know-who’ wrong in MotoGP

Remy Gardner is unsure if he will ever return to MotoGP, but if he does, he would be out to prove “you-know-who” wrong.

Gardner has signed a deal to race in the Superbike World Championship for the GRT Yamaha team from next year, after KTM opted to not renew his contract.

He is therefore guaranteed no more than the five races left this season in the premier class of grand prix competition, with no certainty he will ever be back.

Despite resentment at how 2022 has turned out, the 2021 Moto2 champion expects that he might be willing to stay in WorldSBK for the longer term.

However, if he were to return to MotoGP, there would be added motivation.

“I don’t know if there’s going to be an opportunity to come back, obviously,” said Gardner.

“I don’t feel like I was kind of ready to go yet; I think I still could have done something quite positive here.

“But I’m not sure, honestly, I couldn’t answer that right now, because maybe I’ll like it so much in Superbikes I won’t even want to come back.

“There is a part of me that wants to come back and kind of prove everybody wrong. Especially you-know-who.”

The Sydney native added, “Like I said, I don’t feel like my time was up in MotoGP.

“But unfortunately, that came to quite an abrupt end.

“But ask me next year and I’ll probably tell you I’m happy [to stay in WorldSBK].

“More than anything, I’m excited to start this new project.”

Gardner claimed he was told by KTM that he was “not professional enough” to keep his MotoGP seat although that is denied by the marque’s Motorsports Director, Pit Beirer.

He will be replaced next year by current Moto2 championship leader Augusto Fernandez, while Tech3 team-mate Raul Fernandez had long been on the way to RNF Aprilia.

Gardner has outperformed Fernandez so far in MotoGP, although they are the bottom two of the 24 regular riders in the championship.

At GRT, however, the 24-year-old will be on a bike from the manufacturer which won the WorldSBK title last year courtesy of factory Yamaha pilot Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Gardner thus thinks he can emulate the achievements of another Tech3-to-WorldSBK rider in Iker Lecuona, who is now domiciled at Honda.

“Iker’s already been on the podium, so he’s been having some decent races [even though] I hear the Honda’s maybe not as competitive at the moment,” noted the Australian.

“I think the package that we’ll have next year is not too bad.

“Hopefully, we can be up there fighting for podiums, which is ultimately what I want.

“I don’t want to be last anymore.”

Practice for the Japanese Grand Prix starts tomorrow at Motegi.