Let's talk MotoGP: Here's why Raul Fernandez is a disappointment

It’s time to take stock! Like every year for three years, Let's talk MotoGP is embarking on a fairly important undertaking: taking stock of each driver at the end of the 2024 season, today, Raul Fernandez's turn. For a good part of the winter, we will go back through the rankings in reverse, to the point of talking in detail about the world champion's campaign. Are you ready? Here we go!

Yesterday, we returned to the case of Johann Zarco; click here to find this episode.

The limit

I believe we have just reached a milestone with Raul Fernandez. In 2024, I think it's time to stop seeing him as a future crack on the basis of a single very high level season in Moto2 contested three springs ago. Indeed, this year, Augusto's namesake was particularly discreet, even, very disappointing to put it bluntly.

A bit like Augusto Fernandez, he is very discreet. Photo: Trackhouse Racing

After starting the season with two consecutive retirements, Raul missed the Aprilia train, which was heading straight towards success. To his credit, he had an RS-GP23, last year's model, but this also had undeniable advantages like in Barcelona, ​​a track which had been successful this year.
He was therefore able to create an illusion with a sixth placefollowed, two races later, by a P8 at Assen, another circuit particularly favorable to the RS-GP23.

In fact, he was in a pretty good place before the British Grand Prix, the one that changed his season. At Silverstone, Noale's firm equipped him with an RS-GP24, the same as his teammate and the three other Aprilia riders.. Strangely, it was more of a poisoned chalice. Raul took a long time to adapt to it. Two more retirements and two races finished outside the points later, he was back in the top 15, but not for long. His end of the season, marked only positively by a sixth place in the Sprint in Australia, was not glorious. Since the model change, it has totaled
three withdrawals and four other blank results.

Catastrophic situation

Okay, Raul Fernandez has extenuating circumstances, because it is true that changing motorbikes during exercise is probably very difficult. But ultimately, in the end, it did not succeed, once again, and was not transcendent on the 2023 model. As a result, its accounting situation is quite catastrophic.

Raul Fernandez did not do better than Oliveira during the last round in Barcelona even though the Portuguese had not raced since Misano 2. Photo: Trackhouse Racing

Already, he is only 16th in the general classification with 66 points even though he has competed in all the races. He still scored more than last year (51 units, and 14 in 2022), which shows statistical progression quite uncorrelated, in my humble opinion, from his progress on the handlebars. He didn't fall much in total (only eight falls), but still had five withdrawals.

You might think it's not so bad, because the total, at the end of the year, gets higher and higher. Two elements make the results of his campaign particularly demoralizing. Firstly, the fact that he has never matched his best result in MotoGP; a fifth place acquired quite impressively in Valencia at the end of 2023. However, at the time, he enjoyed a less competitive machine than the rest of the Aprilia troops and still stood out. Secondly, and this is the most serious, that his teammate Miguel Oliveira is ahead of him in the standings… having competed in five fewer races. And the Portuguese himself ultimately disappointed me quite a bit, which only darkens the picture for Raul Fernandez.

Conclusion

In reality, looking at the figures, I find that his season is not that terrible, that there is a sort of gap between him and those who are behind in the standings. Then, it’s true that the context was not ideal. But since his arrival in MotoGP,
I feel like there are always extenuating circumstances.

It's not against him – I wish him the best as well as the others – but I think that the 2024 season showed that his ceiling was not that high, that it is difficult to see, in in any case, the generational crack promised by all the media at the end of the 2021 season. Strictly speaking, there is nothing exceptional about it, it is not out of the ordinary.. He is only 24 years old, but be careful not to trust time, it passes too quickly to trust it.

I'm curious what you thought of Raul Fernandez in 2024, so, tell me in comments!

As a reminder, this article only reflects the thoughts of its author, and not of the entire editorial staff.

Raul Fernandez MotoGP

He is only eleven points ahead of Zarco, and, obviously, he is the lowest ranked Aprilia. Photo: Trackhouse Racing

Cover photo: Trackhouse Racing

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NEXT MotoGP, “Martin's title is a victory for the whole sport, with talent and determination, there are no insurmountable barriers”: the lesson of 2024?