The Australian – son of 1987 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner – beat Ajo KTM teammate Raul Fernandez to an enthralling Moto2 crown last year and earned a promotion up to the premier class with the Austrian manufacturer.
Placed at Tech3 on factory-backed machinery alongside Fernandez, both riders have struggled for form at the start of 2022.
After four races, only Gardner has scored a point of the two of them, while only Fernandez has managed to qualify inside the top 20 so far.
Gardner's pre-season was hindered by a broken wrist in training, which has also affected him in the early races.
But speaking after riding to 20th, 42.442s off the win, at the Americas GP, Gardner admits he expected more from his year so far.
"I expected a little better if I'm honest with you, seeing what other guys have done in the past and I think how we finished the Moto2 year so dominant," he said.
"So, if I'm honest with you I expected more.
"It's been a really tough first few races, hopefully getting back to Europe can bring a bit of stability. It was a big slap in the face, that's for sure."
All KTM riders struggled across the COTA weekend, as the unusual layout of the track was at odds with the RC16.
Only Brad Binder out of the four KTMs managed to score points in 12th, with Gardner hopeful the Austrian marque – which won in Indonesia with Miguel Oliveira and was second in Qatar with Binder – has been able to learn from what went wrong at COTA.
"For KTM, I'm hoping they can take something away from here on how to improve the package that we have," he added.
"They've got four riders giving their best and got two amazing riders at the factory team and one of them not in the points, and we're obviously finishing at the end of the pack, giving our 200% every corner.
"Hopefully they've got good data from that and they can try and think of a way to move forward.
"For sure it's not the easiest track for KTM, we've seen in the past."
