Quartararo: “Something is wrong”

The Yamaha riders had high expectations from the official test day at the Valencia circuit. fabio quartararo hoped to at least find the characteristics of the engine he had tested at Misano in September, but this was not completely the case, far from it. 

The Frenchman had a new iteration of this thruster in Valencia, but it did not work as expected. “We are going to say that there is something wrong,” he said Tuesday evening. We did the tests in Misano, in Barcelona, ​​Cal (Crutchlow, Yamaha test rider, editor's note) did tests in Motegi and Jerez, and there was clearly an improvement. Today was just like last weekend. It's incomprehensible. There must be something, because the engine developed more power than that of Barcelona and Misano and we end up with similar performances as in 2022.

A new fairing

During the day, Quartararo had three YZR-M1s available with several different chassis/fairing combinations. He was the most diligent with more than 90 on the clock. If he says that this day was not in vain, he nevertheless remains disappointed. “Honestly, as soon as we accelerate… 3, 4, 5 and 6, there is nothing compared to what we tried in Misano,” he stressed. That's why I find it strange to see that in Misano, it was much better. Here, I once did 327 km/h, otherwise it's 324 km/h on average. Why don't we have the speed we had at Misano and Barcelona and the speed Cal had at Motegi and Jerez? »

And the Nice native added about the performances recorded in Jerez: “There was a big difference. It wasn't 1 or 2 km/h. Plus, in Jerez, it's pretty easy to see. If we observe a difference there, on a circuit like this, we should observe it more. That's why we wonder what's going on. »

Apart from an insufficient top speed, the Yamaha must also improve the way it turns. Despite a chassis supposed to be closer to that of 2019, a fairing drastically different from the previous one, nothing helps. “We didn’t find anything,” he said of the fairing. We wanted a fairing with more downforce. It's better, but if we don't have the power, we go even slower in the stretches. With a more powerful engine, I think the fairing with the bigger fins can be an advantage on some tracks like Jerez or Le Mans. On circuits like Mugello and Barcelona, ​​we will have to use a standard fairing like we had this year. » 

A busy winter

The Iwata factory will have to get to work during the winter to meet the demands of its new product. The next test at Sepang scheduled for early February will be decisive. “I’m not an engineer,” he said. I have to get on the bike and do my best. This is what I did all season and again today. It's mostly them who go home not very happy. We'll see next year. »