MotoGP | Quartararo: “First test in which there is a big change”

The spotlight of the test day in Jerez was on Yamaha, which had promised to bring a completely different bike, and so it was. The great work of the Iwata manufacturer was seen on the track today, with many new features, sometimes visible and other times less so. In particular, a new fairing and new aerodynamics caught the eye, very evident under the fairing (details here).

Fabio Quartararo ended the day of testing with the 18th fastest time, but the stopwatch should not deceive, because the Frenchman appeared quite satisfied with Yamaha's efforts to bring a package that was appealing for the Frenchman (and also for his teammate Alex Rins, first of the two to try the new aerodynamics).

“It's been a long day,” he said El Diablo in the usual meeting with the media at the end of the tests. “We tried many things, in particular a new frame, new aerodynamics, a new fork and new electronics. At the moment it is difficult to draw conclusions, obviously we will have to analyze carefully. Some are positive, some don't work, unfortunately. But we will have more tests at Mugello after the Le Mans race, so these will be things we can change and see if we can improve.”

The concessions are helping Yamaha take the steps forward that Quartararo expected and, even if the first impacts on some innovations have not been extremely positive, there is room for improvement. After the French Grand Prix, the team will fly to Mugello for tests, where they will try to refine the components that didn't make the Frenchman's eyes shine in Jerez.

“The engine? It's a test engine… it's the same as the racing one, but we don't use it for races”, explained the rider from Nice, who indicated the fairing as the least satisfactory element at the moment. “The hull was also new, it has a different feel. It's no worse or better at the moment. But sometimes, when accelerating, I didn't hear some things, but I saw them in the data. The first impact is undoubtedly neutral.”

Of course, there are still many steps to take and Yamaha is trying, together with the riders, to understand which path to take: “Basically we are trying to turn and we are trying to do it. I found a slight improvement in turn-in, but not in corners, it's a really small step, I have a little more feedback from the front, which is something I was missing. But it's not a huge improvement. It went a little better, but we miss him a lot.”

“In turning we have to push a lot and also what we lack, especially in the last sector, in the past we were super-fast and now we are no longer. And above all I know what we can do in these two corners and we don't feel right at the moment. And this thing is about curves, but it generates more things. When you turn a little more, you can raise the bike and therefore the bike becomes less aggressive. it is something that generates many other difficulties. This is what we are trying to improve,” she continued.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Not all the innovations brought by Yamaha have been promoted, but the mentality is the right one, according to Quartararo. The promises to convince him to renew, therefore, were kept: “Let's say that it is the first time that in the tests we have tried something that is not slightly different. The new frame we tested is really different. In the past we used to try something different, but just a little. Now the change is big, it was important to feel what was on the bike. I think it's the first step for us to see what the right direction is, but I think now we need to do another test to clearly understand and have some ideas of what to do on the bike.”

Some of the new features can already be seen at Le Mans, where MotoGP will race the fifth round of the season in two weeks: “I think we will use some things that we tested today, because it is always better to test on different tracks. For Le Mans we will use some things which I think are not bad and I think it will be interesting to see on three different tracks what my feeling is, especially because Le Mans and Mugello are very different from here, so it will be interesting to do it.”