Fabio Quartararo during the winter break: He can’t go longer than a day without training, but has also learned the limits of his fitness regime
Fabio Quartararo is spending much of the current winter break between the 2023 and 2024 MotoGP seasons in Andorra, where he has lived for several years like so many of his colleagues in the World Motorcycle Championship
In addition to a little relaxation and a few days with friends to celebrate the new year, Quartararo has also set himself the goal of rigorous preparation for the 2024 season during his time at home. “I’m someone who can’t go more than 24 hours without training,” Quartararo reveals in the official MotoGP podcast and explains: “For me, that means a lot of running and a lot of time in the gym.”
“Apart from that, I can spend a lot more time on a motocross bike during the winter break. It’s not so easy during the season because you can easily injure yourself. That’s why I usually do it in December, January, February,” says the 2021 MotoGP World Champion.
Sporting activity is a must for Quartararo. “I’ve always been someone who has to be active somehow. I can’t just lie around lazily at home,” he says and confesses: “Even on a day off, I can’t manage to just do nothing. It has to be at least 45 minutes of cycling or something similar, the main thing is something.”
But the 24-year-old has also learned the limits of his fitness regime. “There were times when I trained three times a day. That’s just too much, because your body simply needs time to recover. The fact that too much training actually increases the risk of injury is something I had to learn,” says Quartararo, adding: “But it wasn’t that long ago that I learned that. “
Quartararo’s training program away from the race weekends is not limited to physical training. Mental training is also something that the young Frenchman has been doing regularly for several years. When he joined the Yamaha works team in the winter of 2020/21, he began working with a psychologist.
“My problem was that I got angry far too quickly. Most of the time the sport was the reason, but not always,” Quartararo recalls the trigger to include mental sessions in his training program alongside the physical sessions.
Working with a psychologist has helped him “a lot in the way I talk to my mechanics when I give them my feedback. But not only that. I’ve also become calmer in everyday life and don’t always shout everything out,” says Quartararo.
The 2021 MotoGP World Champion’s maxim is: “Regardless of whether you are an athlete or not, you should always develop and try to be a better person, also to feel better about yourself. I think that applies to everyone. “
