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For someone who started the 2021 MotoGP season as a retired-from-racing test rider with no ambitions of a full-time return to competitive action, it’s quite the turnaround for Cal Crutchlow.
Not only is he lining up for his home race this weekend at Silverstone, Crutchlow is doing so as a factory rider for only the second time in a premier class career dating back to 2011.
Yet that’s the reality for the British rider this weekend as he joins the works Yamaha team to replace the now-sacked Maverick Vinales, only a few weeks after first returning for two races at the Red Bull Ring in place of the injured Franco Morbidelli at the Petronas SRT satellite team.
While he might be going into this weekend’s race with a lot more experience on this bike under his belt than when he first stepped in at Petronas Yamaha three weeks ago, Crutchlow’s warned not to expect much better than the two 17th place finishes he chalked up in Austria.
As far as he’s concerned, he’s there to do his job as Yamaha’s test rider, he’ll just be doing it within a race weekend rather than at a quiet test track. And that’ll be the case unless Yamaha gives him specific orders to do something different.
“There’ll be more expectations than here [Austria], but everyone’s expectations are nothing – because my job is to test,” he told The Race in Austria when asked how Silverstone might be different.
“Racing is a test, and they can turn my bike upside down if they want.
“I had a problem with the electronics in Austria, and it’s a good thing that it happened to me and not one of the others, because that’s what we’re here for, to do these things.
“I think it worked well, because it gave me time to get back on the bike.
“To be off the bike for so long and so close to the front is something that I was quite pleased about, but everyone else was going faster and that’s just the reality.
“We’ll go to Silverstone with better hopes of improving my feeling and whatever else we can improve, and I’m looking forward to it.”
And really, that’s what Yamaha should be using Crutchlow’s unexpected time on the bike for, given that it’s somewhat squandered its test riders in previous seasons.
Last year’s tester Jorge Lorenzo only rode the bike twice, never getting the chance to build his bike fitness or to give any sort of useful feedback to improve the M1.
But now with Crutchlow being thrust back into a race role, Yamaha has the perfect opportunity to use the 35-year-old the way that Honda used Stefan Bradl last year as he replaced the injured Marc Marquez: to exploit a loophole in the rules and test as much as possible ahead of Morbidelli’s likely return to action (and immediate move into the factory squad) later this year.
If the situation is anything like we saw with Bradl at Honda, Crutchlow and Yamaha are probably going to have to choose between the testing and racing approaches because if the firm wants outright performance (and to score valuable points for the teams’ championship) from Crutchlow this weekend, then it can’t be using his bike for too many experiments.
Bradl spent most of his Repsol Honda year on testing duties during race weekends, only getting one chance to outright race at the final grand prix of the year at Portimao as something of a reward for a job well done. He jumped from fighting just for top 15 finishes to coming home in seventh.
But things might end quite differently for Crutchlow. There’s no doubt that he’s got the speed to pull off a surprise performance on the factory bike if he’s unleashed, but it depends on what happens when this weekend’s action gets under way and what decision Yamaha takes.
Only a podium finisher at home once – in 2016 – but denied the chance to fight for another by 2018’s race cancellation on a weekend he’d qualified fourth, he knows his way around the Northamptonshire track.
If he’s given the pass he needs to get on with racing for himself, then he can do something impressive.
