Six rounds down, six more to come: the 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is seeing stories unfold. However, we caught up with Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) about how he’s relishing being in a new team for this year, and how his mentality has shifted from hating racing in 2021 and being ready to give it all up, to fighting for top five results and having more fun now, back to how it used to be when he went racing with his dad. The Texan completely opens up about his mentality and how past struggles have made him a stronger person now.

Gerloff’s stellar start in WorldSBK came crashing down in 2021 when he was caught up in early-race incidents, the most notable of which was with fellow Yamaha rider and title contender Toprak Razgatlioglu at Assen in Race 2. Razgatlioglu and Gerloff collided at Turn 1 on the first lap, leaving the eventual World Champion out of the race, although the team would later reflect on that as a turning point. For Gerloff however, results and mentality weren’t the same after.

“I WAS OVER IT… I COULDN’T EVEN FEEL LIKE I COULD LOOK IN THE MIRROR”

Talking about his mentality after everything that happened, Gerloff made no bones about the fact he wasn’t enjoying racing: “I was pretty miserable in 2021 after all the stuff that was going on. I hated racing, I hated going to the track and I hated everything about it. At the end of 2021, I wanted to quit racing; I was over it. After everything: all the terrible results and all the drama that I went through and felt, all the incidents, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t understand why I was racing. I couldn’t even feel like l could look in the mirror. I didn’t know who I was as a rider anymore; I didn’t see myself as the person who everyone had painted me out to be. Because of circumstances that I put myself in, it was my fault and I’m not going to deny that. But I didn’t see myself as that person, even though I’d done it. I was over it.”

However, as 2022 kicked into life, the final year of his contract with Yamaha, an opportunity came up that would give the #31 a change of view for 2023: “In 2022, it was difficult too but once I got the opportunity from BMW, it breathed a little bit of life into me. It gave me some motivation and a new challenge and a new atmosphere, a new bike… it was something that I needed. Other than that, I just wanted to stop racing. To come with this team now and with BMW, to have the environment that I have, to be enjoying it as much as I am… it saved my career. I would have been done if things hadn’t changed. I’m grateful for them.”

“I FORGOT TO ENJOY IT… I WAS AT MY BREAKING POINT” – bouncing back in style

Reflecting on that part of his career now, Gerloff admitted that he’d had enough, and that he was so centred by it all: “It is a job at the end of the day and you forget to look at things from a 30,000-foot view. I was so ‘in’ everything that happened; I forgot to enjoy it. I just needed a change to go back and see how everything really is. I live to race, I don’t race to live; it’s my job and I need to do my best. And I was doing my best but I just couldn’t stand it; I hated it. I was just at my breaking point after everything that happened and I wasn’t getting results or having fun. A lot of things in life aren’t fun, but you have to do it. But it’s nice that things have changed; I am having a blast riding a motorcycle again and all I think about is riding and going faster. I’m engaged now and before, it was about trying to avoid it because of how it all went. I’m in a good place now.”

Now in a far more positive mindset and back to the familiar Garrett Gerloff that WorldSBK welcomed at a post-season Aragon test in 2019, the American spoke about being wanted again: “It’s helped a ton. BMW have had success in the past but it’s been a struggle lately. What makes the atmosphere so nice is that I’ve come in with a normal top ten, and the team are ecstatic. They’re pumped! That’s something I have never felt. Honestly, at the beginning, I was annoyed! I was like, ‘why are you guys happy? This sucks and we need to re-evaluate!’ but the nice part is that no matter what I do, they’re happy that I’ve given it my all. That’s such a nice feeling.

“I think with Yamaha, it was a race-winning bike and Toprak was doing amazing things on it, so when you have that guy who has all the incredible results and then you’re out there getting sixth, seventh, fifth, it’s OK but you have that comparison of why aren’t you doing as good, like ‘the bike can do it so what’s wrong with you’; it’s that type of mentality. So, to not have that exact comparison is good. It’s cool because I’ve been the best BMW a couple of times this year and it feels like a win sometimes. To be the best team with the BMW, I think that’s why the team get as excited as they do!”

“IT’S BEEN SUPER FUN! I FEEL LIKE I’M BACK RACING WITH MY DAD WHEN I WAS AMATEUR”

Now without the comparison or expectation, the 27-year-old gave an in-depth answer about whether it’s the same kind of feeling as when he first arrived in the paddock: “It’s the same for any rider and it’s the same in life; if you have low expectations then you can exceed them pretty easily. However, in 2020, that was not the case; the expectations were high in 2020 because the bike was a winning bike and even though I was rookie, I still had to do something otherwise they’d find someone else. Until that podium in Barcelona, it was looking like I was going to be the one without a ride for 2021. Barcelona changed by whole career path as it was looking like I was going to be moved aside and that Caricasulo was going to stay going forwards into 2021. When I started getting podiums, it was like ‘well if you’re not getting podiums then what are you doing?’.

“This is the first time in a team where I’ve felt no expectation; even in the USA, I was on one of the best bikes in one of the best teams for my whole career. ‘If you’re not doing well, then we’re going to have to take a serious look at you because you’re not the guy.’ We can see now that the bike has a lot of potential but not as consistently as we all want, so we’ve all got to do the best as we can. If I am with the best BMW rider or I can be the best BMW rider, that’s probably the best it can be at the moment. It’s been super fun! I feel like I’m back racing with my dad; it’s like whatever result I get, that’s awesome. That’s the vibe right now; it feels like I’ve gone back in time a little bit.”

“IT WAS NICE TO HAVE SOMEONE WHO BELIEVED IN ME” – Gerloff reunited with Les Pearson

One final topic remained; partnering back up with Les Pearson, his crew chief from 2020 and most of 2021. Gerloff stated how happy he is to be back with Pearson, who is a good friend as much as he is a crew chief: “It wasn’t something that I had a decision over in Yamaha; I didn’t have any say in it and it was a total shock when they ended up changing on me. Les, in my opinion, is one of the biggest reasons why I was able to do so well in the first year. I showed up in WorldSBK and in my first race, I was second-last. So it was like, ‘this could be a tough year’, but Les gave a mindset and atmosphere of belief, especially when he spoke to me. That meant a ton to me.

“It’s hard to find belief in yourself sometimes if things aren’t going well, so it was nice to have someone who believed in me. I knew in my heart I could do it but it kind of gets buried down. You have to take small steps and every result we got, whether it was taking two seconds closer to the win or finishing higher up, it was going the right way. He was one of the guys who brought the positivity to GRT and again to Bonovo, but now it’s everyone else too.”

Watch the second half of the 2023 season unfold in style with the WorldSBK VideoPass!