Riders to watch in 2021: Aron Canet
Aron Canet heads into 2021 as a potential title contender in his second season in the class.
Aron Canet is a greatly underappreciated rider, he has always been a dark horse and is incredibly impressive and is not hard to miss, covered from head to toes in tattoos which are also incorporated into his helmet designs. He narrowly missed out on a Junior Moto3 World Championship in 2015, losing the title by just 13 points after missing two races due to injury finishing every race he completed on the podium.
He was an impressive Moto3 rider on the Estrella Galicia Honda, quite often in the thick of it and even fighting for the 2017 Moto3 World Championship in just his second season in the class, finishing in P3 overall after Joan Mir dominated everyone to win the title, nobody was coming close to Mir that season that’s a fact.
Canet on the Estrella Galicia Honda, 2016
After a tough 2018 season which saw him finish in 6th overall, Canet moved to KTM machinery slotting in the newly established Max Racing Team, a move which suited him and his personality incredibly well, Canet is often a calm yet cool rider who does the talking on track and knows damn well how good he is at racing, this worked well with Max Biaggi who was a similar character, a laugh off track but when on track an absolute demon.
This was proven fairly quickly with Canet bagging a podium in the opening race at Qatar before going on to battle Lorenzo Dalla Porta for the title, bad luck would be the sticking point putting an end to his 2019 Moto3 Championship chances, some late-season crashes enabled Dalla Porta to win the title by 79 points over second-placed Canet who was able to bounce back from a tough season in an unexpected manner impressing many on the beautiful Max Racing KTM.
The 2019 Max Racing machine, what a stunner
The next logical step was a Moto2 ride, leaving the Moto3 class with 6 wins and 17 podiums to his name, it was announced Canet would move to Moto2 with the Aspar team which at the time was an odd move given how poor the Aspar team were in 2019. Jake Dixon had to over ride the 2019 Aspar KTM to make it work for him with race winner Mattia Pasini also disliking the bike. Thankfully the team made the switch to Speed Up chassis for 2020 with Canet adapting to the chassis incredibly quickly and impressing many throughout the 2020 season.
He was able to outperform experienced teammate Hafizh Syahrin throughout the year taking regular points finishes finishing the first 5 races of the season in the top 10 with a best result of P5 which was achieved twice in Jerez, he was able to take 7/12 top 10 finishes in the races he contested after missing three races due to an open fracture-dislocation on his fifth left-hand finger in the warm-up session of Le Mans.
Pole Position in Styria
In Styria he looked to have the best race of his season, taking his first Moto2 class pole position and running in the top 3 before an early crash in the race ended the dream for him, he has been able to show a little of what he is capable of on unfavoured chassis with 90% of the class opting for the Kalex machinery which often gives the Moto2 class the name ‘Kalex Cup’, it’s fantastic to see the Speed Up impressing once again with a rookie talent, plus at just 21 years old there is much more in store in the future for Canet.
He excited many in 2020 with his performances and 2021 is looking to be even better.
Featured images – www.motogp.com
KTM Press Centre
