Fabio Quartararo

Fabio Quartararo
Nationality  French
Born April 20, 1999
Nice, France
Current team Estrella Galicia 0,0
Bike number 20
Website FabioQuartararo.fr
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Moto3 World Championship
Active years2015
ManufacturersHonda
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
3 0 1 0 0 39

Fabio Quartararo (born 20 April 1999) is a French Grand Prix motorcycle rider, who currently competes in the Moto3 class for the Estrella Galicia 0,0 team.[1] Prior to his Grand Prix career, Quartararo won six Spanish championship titles, including successive Moto3 titles in 2013 and 2014. Due to his successes at a young age, he has been tipped for "big things",[2] been compared to multiple world champion Marc Márquez,[3][4] and has broken several age records during his progress up to World Championship level.

Biography

Early career

Born in Nice, Quartararo started his career in his native France at the age of 4. He later moved to Spain to compete in the Promovelocidad Cup, a series for young riders organised by the Real Automóvil Club de Cataluña (RACC).[5] He won championship titles in the series' 50cc class in 2008, the 70cc class in 2009, and the 80cc class in 2011. Prior to moving into the senior Moto3 series in Spain, Quartararo won the Mediterranean pre-Moto3 class in 2012, which was also denoted as the Spanish domestic championship.[3]

CEV Repsol career

Moving into the Moto3 class of the CEV Repsol series in 2013, Quartararo joined Wild Wolf Racing – run by former Grand Prix racer Juan Borja[6] – riding a Honda. Quartararo finished on the podium in his maiden race in the series, run in wet conditions,[6] finishing second to Great Britain's Wayne Ryan at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Quartararo finished sixth in the second race at the circuit, and left tied for the championship lead with Dutch rider Bryan Schouten. Over the next four races, Quartararo recorded only one top-ten finish – from pole position at Navarra – and had dropped to eighth in the riders' championship standings,[6] 37 points behind Spain's Marcos Ramírez. Quartararo finished the season strongly however, winning each of the final three races from pole position – his first series wins – defeating Ramírez by almost ten seconds in the final race at Jerez. As a result, Quartararo became the first non-Spanish rider since Stefan Bradl in 2007 to take the title,[7] and at the age of 14 years, 218 days, its youngest series champion, surpassing the previous record held by Aleix Espargaró.[7]

Quartararo remained in the CEV Repsol championship for the 2014 season, as he was not old enough to graduate to the World Championship level.[6] The rule, announced in 2008 and introduced in 2010, stated that a rider must be 16 years of age to compete in a Grand Prix.[8] Quartararo continued riding a Honda in the series, but moved to the Estrella Galicia 0,0 junior team run by Emilio Alzamora, the 1999 125cc world champion.[9] Quartararo finished the season as a clear champion,[10] winning nine of the season's eleven races, and finishing second – to María Herrera at Jerez and Jorge Navarro at Albacete – in the other two. His eventual championship-winning margin was 127 points over Navarro,[7] who joined him as his team-mate at the final round of the season in Valencia. At that final round, Quartararo also beat World Championship competitors Alexis Masbou and John McPhee, with their SaxoPrint-RTG team making a one-off appearance in the championship.[7]

Grand Prix career

Quartararo's performances in the Spanish series were noted at World Championship level. In the race which supported the 2014 French Grand Prix at Le Mans, Quartararo won by almost four seconds over nine laps, leading almost the entire race having started from second on the grid.[11] In August 2014, the Grand Prix Commission – consisting of representatives from Dorna Sports, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the International Road-Racing Teams Association (IRTA) and the Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers' Association (MSMA) – announced a change to the previously-introduced age eligibility rules, allowing for the champion of the FIM CEV Moto3 championship (regardless of age) to compete in the succeeding season of the Moto3 World Championship.[12]

Quartararo was announced to be joining the Moto3 World Championship in October 2014, with the publication of the championship's initial entry list.[1] He remained with the Estrella Galicia 0,0 outfit, again riding a Honda, that he won that season's Spanish title with, and he was joined by Jorge Navarro,[1] his closest rival in those championship standings. He tested the team's Moto3 motorcycle for the first time in post-season testing in Valencia, but his first lap times were not provided due to the fact that he tested without a transponder. During the first day of official pre-season tests at Valencia in 2015, Quartararo set the fastest time in the third session.[13] At the following three-day test at Jerez, Quartararo was fastest in five of nine sessions, including a clean sweep on the final day.[14]

At his opening race weekend in Qatar, Quartararo qualified on the second row of the grid in sixth position, just 0.123 seconds away from the pole-setting time recorded by countryman Alexis Masbou.[15] In the race, Quartararo was ever-present in the lead group, and held the lead of the race with two laps to go, but contact with Francesco Bagnaia saw both riders slip down the running order, with Quartararo ultimately finishing the race in seventh position. Such was the close nature of the racing that Quartararo was just 0.772 seconds behind the race winner, Masbou.[16] At the following event in Austin, Texas, Quartararo achieved his first podium finish, with a second place finish behind Danny Kent.[17]

Career statistics

Pre-Grand Prix career

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

Yr Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Pts
2015 Moto3 Honda QAT
7		 AME
2		 ARG
6		 SPA
 FRA
 ITA
 CAT
 NED
 GER
 IND
 CZE
 GBR
 RSM
 ARA
 JPN
 AUS
 MAL
 VAL
 4th* 39*

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "2015 Moto3 Entry List Announced". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 23 October 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Caron-Dawe, Joseph (31 December 2014). "Five young hotshots to watch out for in MotoGP". RedBull.com (Red Bull GmbH). Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Is Fabio Quartararo the next Marquez?". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 12 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Quartararo: "Me alegra que me comparen con Márquez, pero todavía es muy pronto"" [Quartararo: "I am happy to be compared to Marquez, but it is too early"]. Marca (in Spanish) (Unidad Editorial). 23 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "Quartararo meets young Promo RACC riders". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 12 December 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Fabio Quartararo: A new star is born". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 27 November 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Believing the hype - Fabio Quartararo". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 23 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Lostia, Michele; Elizalde, Pablo (23 December 2008). "FIM changes age limit from 2010". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "Quartararo eligible after 2015 rule change". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 17 August 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Quartararo and Raffin, Moto3 and Moto2 champions. Morales, double winner in Superbike". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 8 November 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Quartararo dominates at Le Mans". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 18 May 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Age limit exception introduced in Moto3". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 19 August 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Quartararo tops timesheets on day one of Valencia test". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 16 February 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  14. ↑ "Moto3 Jerez 2015". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "Masbou secures Moto3 pole in Qatar". Honda Pro Racing (Honda). 28 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Quartararo: "I have to be more relaxed on the final laps"". MotoGP.com (Dorna Sports). 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "Premier podium pour Fabio Quartararo !" [First podium for Fabio Quartararo!]. L'Équipe (in French) (Éditions Philippe Amaury). 12 April 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Álex Márquez		 CEV Repsol Moto3
Champion
2013, 2014 		Succeeded by
Incumbent