The Malaysian Grand Prix was full of expectations for Fabio Quartararo, who found redemption in Sunday’s race after a disastrous Sprint. The Frenchman appeared at ease aboard the Yamaha, with which he engaged in exciting duels that ended with a fifth place finish. El Diablo made a good start which allowed him to be the protagonist in a battle which took place behind the leading quartet and which saw him gain the upper hand.
Once again, the rider from Nice underlined how his Yamaha performs better on used tires than at the start of the race, and this is demonstrated by the effort with which he overtook Jack Miller in the first laps: “We struggled a lot to overtake Miller. We don’t manage to take advantage of the tires at the beginning, but as soon as they collapse I can stay closer and I can do more overtaking. That’s why it took me so long to overtake Jack. I was faster but I couldn’t overtake him. As soon as it collapsed, I passed it. Overall I’m happy with how fast I was this weekend. I could have done better, but the position would not have changed. Fifth place was the best we could do… Let’s hope Yamaha can find this power at the start to be competitive.”
Sepang was a fundamental race for Quartararo to regain competitiveness, but more generally for the tire issue, which has been on the table for some time. Michelin has in fact established a minimum pressure threshold, below which one first encounters a warning and then a penalty. Furthermore, from next year we will need to pay more attention to avoid disqualifications. The Frenchman doesn’t agree with the new regulation: “Disqualification next year? I think it’s stupid! I think it’s already difficult for us to overtake, you can’t even impose a penalty. It’s not even a question of safety, if it were it would be different. But I don’t know what it’s for.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
“I think we need to talk about it in more depth, because it is also dangerous to have tire pressures that are too high. Yesterday in the Sprint I had a bad start, but you can’t ride the bike, it’s completely different. The tire doesn’t work well and the bike changes completely,” he continues El Diablo.
Just today, three riders encountered the warning, we are talking about the two official Ducati riders Enea Bastianini and Pecco Bagnaia, and the wild card Alvaro Bautista. Jorge Martin, however, remained cautious because he received the warning already in Thailand two weeks ago. Quartararo remained within the established parameters and believes that in the next two races there may be less tension in this sense: “In Qatar I think the temperatures will be less hot, in Valencia it will be cool so in that sense there shouldn’t be a problem. There was a risk on this stake.
Another of the new features for next year concerns concessions, a topic that may be of interest to Yamaha. In fact, the Iwata manufacturer could take advantage of it in 2024 and this would help both him and his next teammate Alex Rins to revive the situation in the blue garage. The news also concerns “cuts” at Ducati: “I think it is important for us to have concessions. Ducati has eight bikes! In the end, it is also important for us to have satellite bikes. If we were to have the concessions next year, we have to use them very well because I don’t think we will have them for long. We must make the most of them, we hope that we will be able to derive benefits.”
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