The month that separated the Sepang and Portimão tests does not seem to have allowed Yamaha to correct its problems. Conversely, Fabio Quartararo has completely lost faith in the M1 and, although he was the only Iwata-based rider in the top ten alongside Ducati and Aprilia on Saturday, he already feels he won’t be able to compete with these bikes in a fortnight’s time when the season starts.
“We certainly won’t be ready for the first race,” said Quartararo at the end of the first day of testing in the Algarve. “I’m not saying it 100% because I hope to find a solution for tomorrow, but at the moment I don’t feel ready and I don’t feel good on the bike. For the first time, I haven’t looked at the maximum speeds! We have a lot of work to do.”
Quartararo has “no idea” of the origin of his difficulties, being able only to describe a bike that is difficult to manage and still unpredictable despite the accumulation of revs: “It’s not even that I don’t want to say it, it’s that I don’t know what to say about what’s wrong At the moment, there’s nothing wrong.”
“That’s what I was saying in the garage, it’s like taking someone else’s bike and having to adapt. We rode for four days, three in Sepang and one here. The problem is above all the aggressiveness of the bike, the way it moves. For me, if a bike is physical and there’s performance, I don’t mind, but here it’s super physical and it doesn’t have performance, so we have to find a solution”, complains El Diablo describing this M1 that he almost doesn’t recognize.
Quartararo feels he loses time “everywhere, except when braking” and that there are several areas where he struggles, especially when he takes to the track with new tyres: “Corner speed, stability, corner exit… And it’s difficult to exploit the tyre. In the past, when I put on a new tire I was fast everywhere. Now, braking is no better, lift is no better, cornering is no better… It’s hard to understand. The way the bike moving is difficult”.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
While some riders say they are concerned about the amount of parts to test, Fabio Quartararo didn’t find himself in this situation, as his technical evaluations were limited to testing a large spoiler, which he held, while the rest of his day was been dedicated to modifications to the set-up to improve the behavior of the bike. The Frenchman did his best to stay calm despite the lack of progress.
“In Malaysia, especially on the last day, I wasn’t fit. I was too frustrated to want to do better, to want to set a time. Today, even though I was struggling, I tried to stay very calm and say, ‘Here we are. , we’re not ready, we have to be patient”. Sometimes we try some things, then others, another, another… today we didn’t try anything, we just tried some settings on the bike: the geometry, the rear , whether it was harder or softer. There was one thing that worked, but not much.”
Great difficulties with new tyres
Fabio Quartararo’s difficulties with the new tires have often led him to complain about his performance over the flying lap, but now the problem is such that he expects to suffer at the start of the long stints. The problem is likely to be doubled in Sprint Races, which are shorter than Sunday Grands Prix.
“The problem doesn’t only concern qualifying, but also the pace with new tyres. I’m worried about the Sprint Races because, if you compare it with the leaders, when you put on new tires you’re half a second slower. From 15th on lap 25 you’re slower by one or two tenths, but it’s with new tires that you make the difference, and even more in the time attack”.
As for the pace in qualifying, Quartararo measured his difficulties by comparing his performance with that of the 2022 Portuguese GP: “There was no progress. In the end I took a soft tire and it went a little better, but I lapped in 1’39″6. Last year, with an entire weekend of rain, on the third lap of the race I lapped in 1’39″4 with an average. Last year we lapped in 1’39, not easily because I was attacking hard, but today we only lapped in 1’39 and I was behind Marc, completely at the limit”.
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