Neil Hodgson doesn’t get the hype over ‘miserable’ MotoGP rider who’s been ‘destroyed’ by his teammate

Add as preferred source on Google

Ahead of the Grand Prix of the Americas this weekend, two riders are responsible for all of their team’s points. They are LCR’s Johann Zarco and Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.

Neither of these are particularly surprising. While Zarco has been one of the standout riders thus far, his teammate, Somkiat Chantra, is a rookie who finished mid-table in Moto2 last year.

Meanwhile, Bezzecchi hasn’t been alongside his permanent teammate Jorge Martin. With the Spaniard injured, test rider Lorenzo Savadori has deputised and largely circulated at the back.

At the end of the scale, the most equitable team so far has been Honda, where Joan Mir and Luca Marini are tied. Still, Neil Hodgson says Marini deserves to be demoted in recognition of Zarco’s form.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the leaderboard above is Ai Ogura, who’s contributed nearly 95% of Trackhouse’s points as a rookie. This reflects poorly on his more experienced Raul Fernandez.

Neil Hodgson not convinced that Raul Fernandez ‘just needs to click’ in MotoGP

This is Fernandez’s fourth season in the premier class, having graduated in 2022 on the back of a runner-up finish in Moto2. He debuted at KTM satellite squad Tech3 but has represented Aprilia since, first for RNF and then for successors Trackhouse.

Fernandez’s best result to date was a P5 at the 2023 Valencian GP. He was also sixth in Barcelona last year.

Results like this have led some, in the words of Hodgson, to dub the Spaniard ‘super talented’. There are those who say he ‘just needs to click’ before he can show his full potential.

But Hodgson doesn’t buy into the hype. He’s deeply concerned by the deficit to a brand-new rider in Ogura, one that would be larger without a disqualification in Argentina for a technical infringement.

“This man needs to find his form,” Hodgson said during TNT Sports’ coverage of FP1 in Austin. “He’s been given a lot of opportunities. He’s had a miserable start to the season.

“He’s been absolutely destroyed by his rookie teammate. A lot of people are still pinning hopes on Raul Fernandez saying ‘he’s a super talented kid, he just needs to click, find a setting.”

What Raul Fernandez remembers from his ‘astonishing’ testing crash

In Fernandez’s defence, he qualified a commendable eighth for the Thailand GP before encountering a race-ending problem with his Aprilia. The points share statistic would look less damning without that issue.

But it was Ogura leading the charge for Trackhouse that weekend, and that’s been the overriding theme so far. Davide Brivio is optimistic for Fernandez at the Americas Grand Prix after a productive set-up experiment at the last race.

It’s worth remembering that Fernandez suffered a severe crash at the Sepang Test, limiting his programme to two full days in Buriram. He called it an ‘astonishing’ accident and said ‘I remember I was on the bike, and on a few seconds later on the ground – that was it’.

Fernandez couldn’t ride the Aprilia normally in Thailand, further disrupting his preparations. Perhaps Brivio will take that into account before he starts putting more pressure on his rider behind the scenes.