Fabio Quartararo’s ninth place on the Barcelona Circuit is not his best result of the season: after seventh place in Portimao, on that occasion the French Yamaha rider only managed to move up two positions, finishing 20 seconds behind the winner , while this Sunday at Montmeló “El Diablo” managed to climb from 17th place on the grid to ninth, still 20 seconds behind the winner Pecco Bagnaia, but just 10 seconds from the final podium, occupied by Marc Marquez.
Yamaha carried out a private test at Mugello three weeks ago, where it tested new aerodynamics, as well as other innovations less easy to spot at first glance, such as an engine that was sometimes described as “new” and other times as a electronic evolution of the current one.
In any case, Quartararo concluded Sunday’s race cautiously satisfied with the innovations already on the track in Barcelona and declared that, after a year and a half in the dark, we are starting to see “the light at the end of the tunnel”.
For the 25-year-old, the progress seen in recent months gives hope that Yamaha can turn the situation around and close the gap to the leaders.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“When you take small steps, you want to take a bigger one as soon as possible,” he said Sunday afternoon at Montmelò. “But to be honest, in this last year and a half we haven’t made any progress, and now that we see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s great,” he exclaimed.
Quartararo looks to Mugello, where Yamaha’s improvements have worked very well in testing and where the Italian Grand Prix will take place next weekend. “Hopefully we can make good progress soon.”
The series of improvements introduced helped the Frenchman to have better management of the M1. “Personally, the changes help me to turn, to enter corners a little faster. It’s difficult to say whether it’s a big step forward or not, because the aerodynamics can’t be said to have improved much.”
Having identified the problem, Yamaha did a smart job
This year Yamaha and Honda can benefit from a wider range of concessions, with two updates to the aerodynamic package, as well as benefiting from private testing limited only by the number of tires for official riders. Quartararo says the extra track time allows Yamaha to test new components on the M1, but also to get fully accustomed to them.
Furthermore, he stated that the Iwata brand does not introduce upgrades for the sake of it, as only components that offer significant improvements are mounted on the bike.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“For me, with the aerodynamics you get a lot more used to it when you do more laps,” he said.
“During the weekend I learn even more about the aerodynamics I use, because I can understand where the strengths are, whereas in five laps you can’t really understand. This is the advantage of having the concessions,” he underlined.
“After Mugello we will go to Valencia for two days of testing. There is a lot of work, but it’s worth it because Yamaha has never worked like this in the past, it has never had so many ideas,” he said euphoricly.
“And we’re not bringing things for the sake of carrying them. We’ve made it clear to the team that I don’t want to try another frame or another swingarm. We’ve already tried hundreds.”
“We know where the problem comes from, so now they are really focused on it and are working intelligently,” concluded the boy from the French Riviera.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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