Quartararo: "We clearly saw who was last this weekend"

Sixth on the starting grid, the French rider knew that his Grand Prix was going to be difficult, since he had to pay a long lap penalty, following his collision at the start of the sprint race with Enea Bastianini's KTM. Having started back in the pack, Quarterly spent a good part of his race behind Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati), whom he had managed to overtake at the start of the race. But once behind the Ducati, the weaknesses of his Yamaha were once again felt...

“Honestly, I wasn't very confident at the start, especially considering what happened on Saturday, so I braked a bit too early this time. I lost two positions, but then I was able to pass Binder and Bagnaia on the first lap. After the long lap, the tires started to lose grip, and we know that when that happens we have a lot of difficulty compared to our rivals. I was pushing hard to fight with Pecco, but I couldn't get back. I was better on the braking, but the bike is too slow on acceleration.”

Asked about these acceleration problems that never seem to improve on Iwata's machine, Fabio Quartararo gave a firm answer: "We clearly saw who was last this weekend.", he analyzed, after a Grand Prix that saw Ducati, KTM and Aprilia reach the podium, while Honda finished fifth thanks to Luca Marini.

“Every day I'm here, I ask the team why we don't have new parts, why we don't have any ideas either. For me, the most important thing is that I feel like I've had the same chassis since the pre-season tests in Sepang, the same swingarms for a long time, we have to invent something, try to understand what's going on because we're very far from everyone else in terms of grip, and we can't find any solutions. It's a very difficult situation at the moment.”

Quartararo distraught over lack of solutions

While the 2021 world champion seemed satisfied with his decision to extend his adventure with Yamaha at the start of the season, notably by securing four consecutive pole positions, the number 20 has since stagnated in the standings. This situation may be due to the ongoing development of Yamaha's V-four engine, which is currently the only factory to continue using an inline-four. Quartararo therefore hopes that the engine takes up as much of the Japanese engineers' time as possible, without them having to dwell on the problems of the current machine.

“It’s hard enough to get good at one aspect of the bike, if they focus on two things at once it’s the best way to get it completely wrong. I hope they’re fully focused on the V4, because it’s clear we won’t have anything new with the inline-four. I didn’t imagine that at all. Austria, I expected it to be difficult. Here, a little, but not as much. I can clearly see where we’re losing out, and there’s nothing I can do. In Bagnaia, I saw how much I could make up for it on braking. But on acceleration, we simply have nothing. I don’t see the same dynamic anymore. I don’t know if it’s because they’re really focusing on the new bike or not, but in any case I can see that we’re not making any progress, and that they’re not finding any solutions to my problems.”

Alors que le MotoGP Now preparing to visit the Barcelona and Misano circuits, "El Diablo" is not expecting miracles, even if he thinks that the track where he celebrated his world title in 2021 could rather smile on the YZR-M1, at race pace nonetheless.

"I know the next two races will be difficult, because at Misano we can go fast in race pace, but over one lap we had a lot of problems. Barcelona, ​​we know there is very little grip there. Barcelona will be a complicated weekend, at Misano qualifying will not be easy but I think in terms of race pace we can do quite well."

Interview by Luca Bartolomeo, in Hungary.

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