Red Bull KTM’s Remy Gardner achieved his dream of becoming Moto2 World Champion at Valencia, but it didn’t come easy.

The first Australian to claim the intermediate title since Kel Carruthers in 1969, Gardner follows in his father Wayne’s footsteps to world champion success. His progression into the premier class for 2022 the next on the path to becoming MotoGP champion.

2021 provided a non-stop battle for the 23-year-old, with Ajo teammate Raul Fernandez a formidable opponent. His first shot at claiming the title missed due to a crash in Austin, Gardner contested the remaining two races despite the ensuing broken ribs.

“It's definitely been an intense season,” Gardner said as the celebrations subsided on Sunday. “Raul did an amazing job this year. As a rookie, he really put it to me and really made me work for it for sure. It's such an amazing, amazing season. So many podiums, so many great races, five wins and just so many great moments with the team. It's incredible.

“There were times where I'd finished second and I'd be like, ‘ah, that was a bad day’, but you really just have to enjoy every moment. It's been such an amazing season but intense for sure. Especially the last quarter has been really intense. Raul has been really fast, I've made a few mistakes, as he has as well but consistency was key in the end. The days that I just couldn't win or Raul won, it was about finishing and getting whatever points I had. Ultimately that's really what got us across the line.

“Last quarter of the season was very, very tough, pressure wise and obviously Misano with all the rain and everything, bad qualifying and the double long lap and still managing to bring home seventh - in the end, that's what counts you know, on the bad days is any points are better than no points. Ultimately that's what won us the championship this year and for sure, the experience helped out with that.

“Obviously, that mistake in Austin definitely cost me the championship probably before but there was no point in crying about it. I accepted what happened. It was my mistake. Ran in there too hot and got a bit of bad asphalt - which there was a few bits there in Texas - but in the end, that was it. You make mistakes, we're all human, you live with yourself, you move on and you learn. You take that into the future and you learn from that and I think probably my best race ever was Portimao. That was for me the decider, keeping my head there and really just sticking with my guns with that hard tyre and really believing in myself, and having the ultimate speed in Portimao as well I think was key.

“With the first race I had a pretty good first lap, after that incident in turn two, I kind of got through on the inside and ended up pretty far up with the front guys,” he continued, reflecting on his final race as a Moto2 rider.

"I thought ‘Okay, this would be a good opportunity just to have good pace in the beginning and break up the group and just have a good consistent race’. Obviously with the red flag, everything stopped. I think everyone got to the restart, so there was no less riders out there. Made a good start on both races. Second restart wasn't as good on the first lap, for the first few laps I was hanging there just going with the guys but it was a little bit scary because up the front I saw there was a bit of commotion going on. Guys were passing and Raul was going for it and I thought 'you know what, I'm not gonna put myself in the middle there. I'm just gonna hang back'. But then I came under fire from the guys behind and I had to kind of pull my finger out a little bit and break up the group a little bit. I had to push a little bit harder just to get away from Tetsu [Tetsuta Nagashima], he was going crazy - you know Tetsu, teammate in the past I know him very well, how he rides - so I was just trying to break up the group a little bit and just finish the race in a respectable position and safely. Manage to do that, keep my nerves, for sure it was a lot of pressure but managed to bring it home.

“Hasn't really sunk in yet to be honest,” he said of becoming world champion. "For sure there's been so many ideas and definitely decent success this year and even last year. I really kind of changed my chip last year and everything going started to go a bit better. Even though I didn't have the most podiums in the world, I just really managed to get my mind under control and everything was kind of falling into place and I was really just trying to keep positive about everything. Definitely from 2015 to even 2019 they were really, really tough years for me.

“There were points in my career where I really honestly believed that was it, there was no more and this was the end of the road” ” he explained further. “Especially after injury, for sure. Just fighting through that was incredibly difficult.

“Honestly, I just kind of got that fighting spirit, I guess. The worst one was obviously breaking both my legs. That was a really big accident. Really bad accident, not just for my legs but big hit to the head and back and everything, just was not good.

“I was just sitting in the hospital and then went home and just thought 'well, this is it. I got no ride for next year and I haven't gotten the results and career is over'. I was just sitting there, playing my playstation one day and just thinking what choice do I have. It's either just sit here and cry about it or pick yourself up and push like a motherfucker until you're dead and that's all I did. Just pushed to the end, just picked myself up and went to physio eight hours a day until I was literally passing out and getting dizzy spells just from trying to walk earlier than whatever I was supposed to. The doctor said three months in a wheelchair and third week I was already waddling around the house like a penguin! Just lots of internal grit I guess. That never give up spirit and it paid off. Today it paid off.”

This week a new challenge begins already as Gardner begins life as a MotoGP rider within the Tech3 KTM team - once again alongside Fernandez. With the title battle under his belt, does that give him an extra edge going forward?

“Winning the title is incredible,” he said. “It gives you an understanding of what you need to do, how you need to do it and how to contain your emotions, push when it's necessary, take the points when you can't win. For sure it gives you a lot of experience managing pressure more than anything I'd say. So hopefully I adapt well to the MotoGP bike.

“Obviously it's a dream for everyone in the world that enjoys motorcycles, to be MotoGP world champion. At the moment, for sure, it's a little bit far away but the step up is next year. There's a lot to learn for sure. There's a lot of world champions in MotoGP, a lot of amazing riders and there's a lot to learn from that. A new class to get to grips with first but I just want to go and have fun and really enjoy riding with the big boys. I'm sure I'll be enjoying every single lap with 300 horsepower underneath me so I can't wait.”