Yamaha is working hard to return to the top and, between the market and technique, has not been sitting idle during these three weeks of “summer break”. When Fabio Quartararo decided to continue to trust the Iwata team, he did so with good reason, considering the optimism with which he showed up at the Dutch Grand Prix.
On Thursday in Assen, El Diablo he spoke to the media and showed himself to be very satisfied with the work done by Yamaha. After a brief stint with sponsors with a Monster event at Silverstone, the Frenchman flew to Spain, where a day of testing had been organized which proved to be very productive. Many new features and a new engine make the 2021 world champion smile, who has drawn up a more than positive assessment.
“It was a really good day, we tried a lot of things,” explained the Nice native. “We can already use some of them here, but above all we tested a very good engine. We can’t use it now and I don’t know when we will be able to. But we have some improvements already for this weekend. They won’t be huge differences, but I expect to be faster.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
In particular, Quartararo went into detail about the engine, which allows him to drive his M1 better. He won’t be one of the elements to be used this weekend, but he instills a lot of confidence: “We focused a lot on handling and turning. The handling of the past is much easier. At Mugello, in Jerez, I suffered a lot from a physical point of view and this engine improved agility and cornering a lot. I think this will be a great, great help going forward.”
“Obviously there are also some small negative aspects, but I was very happy with this test, because we tried a lot of things, I did more than 100 laps. We didn’t stop all day. It was really nice to have fun, when we try things and the sensations are always better. It’s fantastic,” he continues.
Assen is a track that has historically been friendly to Yamaha, even if the Frenchman reveals that he no longer thinks about which tracks are congenial or not, given the current situation: “It will be very tough, because for me this is one of the most physical tracks. I’m not fully confident throughout the weekend, but we are trying some changes on the bike. They are small things that you will be able to see on the back of my saddle. I’ll have more padding, the handlebars will be a little more open, because we’re struggling. For me it was great to see in the Valencia tests that the new engine was really easy to use and this is great for the future. Unfortunately we can’t use it here, but for the future it’s the right path, we’re on the right path.”
One of the themes of the weekend is certainly the satellite team. Pramac now seems close to announcing the move from Ducati to Yamaha and this makes Quartararo even more confident: “It could be something really important for us in terms of the future. In the end, Ducati made a lot of improvements also thanks to the satellite teams. When you take a test you have double information, you can test much more quickly. We hope to have two more bikes in the future. However this will be a great thing for us.”
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