Gerloff: Life goal has been to race in MotoGP, would love to come back

WorldSBK rider Garrett Gerloff has put his name squarely inside the Yamaha MotoGP shop window for a possible 2022 ride after a positive Dutch Grand Prix weekend. 

The American finished 17th in his first ever MotoGP race and ahead of current Ducati rookie Luca Marini. 

All weekend Gerloff was running at a very respectable pace - similar to that of Marini, Enea Bastianini and Lorenzo Savadori - around two seconds down on the top times. 

Heading into the race Gerloff was hoping to clinch a debut points finish, but ‘some mistakes’ when trying to make ‘a pass’, cost the Petronas rider time to those in front.

"It just took me too long to find a place and I definitely made some mistakes trying to make a pass and that definitely cost me a decent amount of time, unfortunately," added Gerloff. 

"In the end, it was nice to finish and it was a great experience. I just have to thank the Petronas Yamaha SRT team for the opportunity again."

As already stated, Yamaha are likely looking for not one, but two riders heading into 2022 - both potentially with Petronas Yamaha, as rumours of Maverick Vinales leaving the factory team have officially been confirmed. 

This means Franco Morbidelli is the most likely to move into that seat next year - thus opening up two seats as Valentino Rossi looks more likely to retire or leave the team than not. 

And with no American currently on the grid, one of those bikes could well come the way of Gerloff who said his ‘life goal’ is to become a full-time MotoGP rider.  

Gerloff added: "Yeah, definitely. My goal my whole life has been to race in MotoGP. I definitely would love to come back and be racing in MotoGP. 

"But I’m just here for now, for this race, and then back to World Superbike which is still my main focus for this year. 

"I want to do the best that I can there, and then try to earn an opportunity to come back to GP."

The full weekend in Assen means Gerloff now has four complete days of MotoGP action in his career. 

The 25 year-old was asked to sum up what he’s learned through this experience to which he said: "A lot, for sure. The bike in the dry is such a different animal than in the wet. The bike is so rigid and the tyres have so much grip that it just reacts off of every imperfection in the track. 

"It definitely can be a little bit hard to manage, but I learned a little bit about riding technique and whatnot.

"As far as the riding experience and what I learned from that, it was huge. It was great to work with the team and see how Ramon and Andy, the electronics guys, do their job and everything. 

"So, it definitely was nice to see that and kind of maybe take some of that knowledge back to World Superbike, even though my team already does an amazing job with all that."