Cal Crutchlow: ‘I missed racing, specifically against people I didn't like’

Cal Crutchlow unzipped his racing leathers in Portugal at the end of 2020 and believed he’d permanently pulled the brakes on the 220mph cut-and-thrust of the fastest motorcycle racing series in the world. The now 37-year-old transitioned into a principal testing role for Yamaha but found himself immersed back into MotoGP race action as a replacement for four events in 2021 and then six outings this season; the last of which occurred this weekend at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, the final round of a whirlwind 20-race season.

Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia clinched the title ahead of last year’s champion Fabio Quartararo of France. The Italian and the Frenchman broke the 10-year stranglehold of the world’s two-wheeled racing series by Spanish riders.

MotoGP has been deprived of a prominent British rider since Crutchlow’s semi-retirement. With three wins and nearly 20 podium appearances in almost 180 starts since his maiden outing in 2011, he has been the UK’s reference in Grands Prix. “I didn’t miss the travel… but I did miss the racing, specifically racing against people I don’t like; it was the competitiveness I missed,” he tells us. 

Crutchlow hobbles to our interview. He badly broke his right leg and ankle four years ago in Australia and smashed the same joint in a fast crash a few weeks ago in Thailand. He has a painful back and needs a new shoulder; a procedure that will eventually push the kill switch on his riding career. 

He looks tired, and with justification. Valencia is his sixth Grand Prix in an eight-week period for the RNF team that also included two tests for Yamaha as it looks to reverse its top speed disadvantage against every other bike on the MotoGP grid. 

“The transition was OK because I still got my adrenaline fix from riding a bike fast, but a lot of the time testing is boring because you are on the circuit alone,” he says. “I’ve had sessions where there will be 27 staff in the pits and not a soul around the track; if you did 10 laps then you’d see the 10 black [tyre] lines of where you’d been before. It’s strange.”

The former winner of Grands Prix in Czech Republic, Argentina and Australia has not been merely making up the numbers. He took points in four of his five outings prior to Valencia and is often the second-best Yamaha. MotoGP, meanwhile, has emerged from the technology freeze of the pandemic years with evolving aerodynamics and a new, resilient Michelin tyre allocation that has condensed the field and raised the pressure but limited some of the overtaking. Six of the top 10 closest race finishes of all time in MotoGP have happened in the last 18 months. The gap between 1st and 10th positions in Australia three weeks ago was less than six seconds. 

“It’s harder now because the riders understand the bikes more and how to get the best out of them,” Crutchlow opines. “The other thing is the tyre; it strings things out because everybody can do the same thing. Before you had to control your throttle and manage your situation on the bike a lot more. Now they go flat-out the whole race.”

Extracting the frightening potential of the howling prototypes in MotoGP is one of the unique calling cards of Grand Prix riders and a demanding contest divided by hundredths of a second. 

Crutchlow says: “If you come into this half-heartedly then you are either riding around at the back on your own – which is dangerous because you are not activating the tyres – or you are risking yourself. It’s not really a comparison but these bikes are a bit like Formula One cars: you cannot go slowly. They are nothing like, say, a Superbike. Everything is so stiff and the more you push the better you feel. I came back to this thinking ‘I have to turn-it-on here’ because I did not want to ride around picking up a cheque. I’ve never been that guy.”

In 2023 the world championship will undergo the most radical format change in its 73-year history with the introduction of Saturday sprint races. Such an overhaul can be seen as a way to arrest a slump or crisis but Crutchlow is open to the change and for the health of the series generally. “I don’t mind the idea,” he says. “F1 started to do it and they seem to have bigger crowds than ever in some places. I think it brings a bit of spice to it. The schedule will be very, very hard though.”

The fact that Crutchlow is still the biggest British name in MotoGP can be dismaying for native fans. Former racer Michael Laverty’s VisionTrack Racing team is providing a platform in the third-tier Moto3 series for prospects but it still feels a long-way off from another Briton stirring the MotoGP pot.

“We’re looking for talent, and I think we’ve got it, but it’s getting them in here,” Crutchlow said in a recent media debrief session. 

The British Talent Cup is “doing an amazing job” but there hasn’t been the mix of the right rider, timing and the opportunity in a relentless and results-driven business. “It’s just about trying to get British riders in, learning the circuits and getting them as fast as we can. I know that sounds like you’ve got to rush it but that’s what I did: British Superbike, World Supersport, World Superbike, MotoGP, all in four years. Because I knew I needed to get here and learn.”

Crutchlow insists that part of him still loves the tribulations of MotoGP “but I could easily be sat at home on the sofa”. The country and the sport will miss a character of his ilk when life does eventually slow down.