Should we be worried about Fabio Quartararo?

The facts: A cruel lack of top speed, only an 11th place in qualifying during the first Grand Prix of the season in Qatar, a 9th final position in the race... the reigning world champion is not at his best at the start of year 2022. So should we be worried about fabio quartararo ? 

YES, by Thomas Morsellino 

Based on figures like top speed, we are tempted to say yes. But, in my humble opinion, it's Yamaha that should be trembling. There were positives in Qatar like the Frenchman's racing pace. Top speed is a subject that has been debated for many years at the Iwata company. In the past, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo or Maverick Viñales complained about the power deficit, but that did not prevent them from winning. And then in Lusail, contrary to popular belief, it is the Japanese manufacturer which has the most victories, with 10 successes on the clock, including two last year.

The Yamaha has (had?) the habit of playing with its passing speed in curves to make up for its delay on the straight ends. At the exit of the last turn which conditions the straight line more than a kilometer long, it made the difference. What has changed this year? First, according to Quartararo, the other manufacturers have progressed, starting with Suzuki which places its two representatives at the top of the top speed rankings for the weekend. These are therefore two more opponents on the track who are added to the Ducati, the Honda and the KTM…

On Sunday, this is what happened with Alex Rins and Joan Mir who finished ahead of Quartararo. Then there was this problem with the front tire pressure, a phenomenon he has suffered from before (Aragón 2020). When sucked in, the tire heats up very quickly and increases in pressure. Yet last year, he also rode in a bunch, had to elbow, but he won... and that on Sunday evening, Quartararo couldn't explain it. He puts himself in the red to keep up with his opponents, but in Qatar, it was not enough. Should we be worried about Quartararo? In my opinion, let's wait until the paddock returns to Europe to assess the extent of the situation. Should Yamaha be worried, however? Yes. If the factory cannot find a solution so that its best driver can play for victory, the prospect of a contract extension will become nothing more than a utopia: “My priority is to win, nothing more. Yes, my priority is to make sure I have the best bike and of course that is very important for the future,” he said on Sunday.

NO, by Medhi Casaurang-Vergez 

There's no need to panic. Twenty-one meetings are on the program for the 2022 season and they would like us to believe that the championship is already over for Yamaha and Fabio Quartararo from the first meeting? Now, it's not a question of falling into the Coué method either. Things are not going to get back to normal on their own.

The rankings from the first round of the season rarely reflect the state of the World Championship at the end of the year. In 19 editions of the Qatar Grand Prix, there are only Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in 2005, Casey Stoner (Ducati) in 2007 thanks to an 800 cm3 regulation well negotiated by the Italian firm, then Marc Marquez (Honda) , above the rest in 2014, to have triumphed in the desert of the Middle East as well as in the final general classification the same year.

In 2021, Fabio Quartararo finished 5th in the Qatar GP, before raising the bar during the following events and experiencing the season we know. A year later, it is obvious that Yamaha will not monopolize all the podiums in the four corners of the globe. But that was already the case in 2021!

In bad times, the Frenchman gritted his teeth without panicking (13th in Jerez, 6th in Barcelona, ​​7th in Red Bull Ring, 8th in Aragon in particular), while scoring valuable points with a view to the title. His greatest strength remains not giving in to his emotions when competitors overwhelm him, something that Marc Marquez also learned the hard way during his career.

The density of the sporting level of the MotoGP is so compact that a fall or mishap often results in a zero score. The list of different winners per year has tended to lengthen since the mid-2010s, thanks to the rise in power of teams like Suzuki, Ducati or KTM, making the sequence of victories de facto more risky or at least the quest for the podium. It is therefore in difficult times that we can judge the quality of a driver and his team. We can bet that Fabio Quartararo's mentality and racing intelligence will make up for the shortcomings of his machine this year, while waiting to benefit from better equipment.

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