An injury-hit Remy Gardner is taking his approach to MotoGP promotion steadily in 2022 as the Australian joins the Tech3 KTM squad.

With last season concluding later than normal, and with both broken ribs and wrist to contend with through the winter, preparation has been somewhat stunted for the Moto2 Champion as he prepares for the premier class.

Shakedown testing in Malaysia  however, is going ‘smoothly’ for the 23-year-old, with consistent yet improving 2’01 pace shown across the opening two days at the Sepang International Circuit.

“Today has been a really positive day,” Gardner said on Tuesday’s conclusion. “I am starting to feel better on the bike, we made some changes, some positive changes.

“Still trying to deal with my wrist at the moment but it’s not so bad. The second half of the day was more difficult and was hurting more. Anyway, these days are for testing things, and keeping smooth so I’m happy and I can’t wait for tomorrow.

“It was a fast winter to be honest,” he explained before the test action got going. “I think the fastest one yet especially in December I was pretty flat out with media commitments and stuff, it flew by pretty quick to be honest.

“With the wrist, I was just riding some motocross and trying to do my training and get prepared. I didn't crash I just kind of, as I came down on the front of the bike a little bit more I just bottomed the forks, because I ran them quite soft. I just had my wrist in a little bit of a weird position, and when it bottomed I just felt it crack as soon as it hit the bottom. Moved it round and I was like 'Fuck, that's broken', so not good. But anyway, shit happens.

“It's the radius bone, the big one basically. Just the tip. It's pretty much like a straight break, really clean and just the tip is kind of broken off. Didn't displace or anything. So basically, they've just gone in, and put two screws in sideways and just fixed it in place. So in theory nothing can move but still all the soft tissue and everything are quite tender and in even my forearm, because it did swell up quite a lot and there was a lot of stress around that area but we're gonna try.

“For sure, it's not gonna be easy. It was only 13 days ago that I got the operation. So you know, it's still quite new. I've been trying to do as much physio as possible to get ready but it's gonna be hard.

"We're gonna try and maybe do short runs. We've got lots of days, lots of testing. So take it step by step. We don't want to do any more damage and make it worse for the future so we're really just going to be taking it as it comes and see how I feel first on the bike, but yeah, we're gonna try for sure.”

January’s motocross accident wasn’t the first injury Gardner has had to contend with in recent months after a free practice crash in Portugal’s November visit created a painful end to his championship winning season.

“The ribs, that happened in the crash in Portugal on Friday,” Remy confirmed. “I didn't actually get any scans or anything done until after the testing. I honestly didn't really want to know. I just wanted to put it out of my brain. Then, riding the GP bike, I think the second or third exit on the bike, I was changing direction and then felt it again, once again it just went bang and something cracked again and took the breath away. That was on the first day.

“They were really, really sore and then on Monday, after the test, actually, I went to get a CT scan and yeah, I had the 10th and 11th rib completely broken. So that was from Portugal and basically I raced Portugal and then raced in Valencia plus the testing with two broken ribs. Luckily, they weren't displaced but they were definitely broken!”

With KTM boss Pit Beirer describing the two Tech3 riders, Raul Fernandez and Gardner, just as much factory riders as Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder in the eyes of the manufacturer and in the structure’s progression, the Australian looks to be in a good place.

“That's nice to hear from Pit,” he admitted. “You know, it gives you the confidence that the factory is behind us 100%. I guess we get all the same parts as those guys and for sure, there's a lot of hope, with me and Raul, to adapt fast to the class and bring the brand forward. I feel honoured and like I said, it gives you confidence to know that the brand is really backing and believe in what you're doing, which is nice.”

“There's a lot to learn, every day that you get on the big bike you start to relax a bit more,” he said turning his attention to this week’s testing. “For sure we're more tense than the other guys. Everything's new. It's a lot of power. But you can feel step by step, day by day and even session by session, you start to get a bit looser on the bike, everything flows a bit better. Honestly, I didn't feel too bad even in Jerez, even with those ribs. I was compensating a lot with my right side, because I couldn't push too much on my left side but even so I was doing a few laps, I think I was doing runs of eight, nine, ten laps and I was pretty okay to be honest. It's a different story when you're doing 25 but we'll have to see. In Malaysia I’ll maybe not do race distance just yet. First I want to see how this bad boy's going, so take it step by step at the moment.

“The bike will be pretty much the same as what we tried in Jerez. I quite liked it to be honest. So I'm not too fussed. There's a few things to try. I think the test team is doing more parts, trial and error these days than us.

“I think it's more just we get to grips with the bike, wake up a little bit. I personally felt we needed to work a lot on the electronics from last test and so I gave the guys lots of homework over the winter to come prepared with some new stuff - traction control and a few things like that. Honestly, more than anything just to see how I feel on the bike.

“The approach to this season is really step by step,” he continued. “There's a lot of riding to do this year and really just not go too crazy and get over enthusiastic. We've seen rookies in the past have some pretty big shunts and hurt themselves. So for me it's really just take it step by step - a lot of days, a lot of riding and for me my goal would be to try and fight for the Rookie of the Year. It's going to be a long year so it's seriously step by step and there's a lot a lot to learn with these bikes and the crashes are pretty big because we going really a lot faster, so it's feet on the ground and nice and relaxed.”