Gerloff 'was really p****d' following Mandalika, in much better place now

Garrett Gerloff believes he's in a much better place both mentally and physically ahead of the 2022 WorldSBK season which gets underway next month. 

The GRT Yamaha rider, who finished the recent Aragon WorldSBK test second to Toprak Razgatlioglu, a test solely organised by Yamaha, was making his first on-track appearance of the year. 

With Razgatlioglu, Andrea Locatelli and Christophe Ponsson flying the Yamaha flag during last month’s two-day Portimao test - once again Razgatlioglu was quickest - both GRT riders Gerloff and Kohta Nozane joined them for what was a weather-affected two-day outing in Teruel. 

Even so, Gerloff was able to complete 106 laps on the final day, while finishing less than a tenth behind the current world champion. 

While it’s a good start to pre-season testing for the American, the true test will come at next month’s season opener following a 2021 season which saw Gerloff look like a different rider to that of his rookie season, and not in a good way. 

The former MotoAmerica rider, while still supremely fast on his own, seemed to lose confidence when racing others due to several mistakes that led to contact earlier in the year. However, a new approach to 2022 has seen the Texan work extensively on himself, which he claims are providing the desired results.  

Speaking after the Aragon test, Gerloff told WorldSBK.com: "I’m feeling really good. I’ve really been working hard in a lot of different areas getting my physical shape going and working on my mental side and everything. I feel great. 

"I was working a lot on the physical side but that’s the only thing you can visibly see. I’ve really been working on my head a lot also. 

"The physical side of it, I just got home from Indonesia and I was just p****d off a lot, for a lot of different reasons, and I just needed something to put my time and energy into. 

"I started doing some different training stuff with my trainer back home in Texas and it was just nice to put my energy into something.

"I was still trying to ride as much as I could at the motocross track and the go-kart track. It was like three months of hell and now I’m back here, the bread is too good, the pasta is too good, and it’s been a little bit hard to maintain it!"