MotoGP | Quartararo: “Where others find 6 tenths of rubber, we are slower”

Misano can almost be considered a home track for Fabio Quartararo, so much so that on the Thursday of the San Marino Grand Prix, in the usual meeting with the media, he joked by saying that he could look for an apartment near the track. In fact, Yamaha has been here on several occasions to carry out private tests: the Iwata manufacturer is taking advantage of the concessions and has the freedom to test with the regular riders, so the Frenchman now knows the Romagna track by heart.

“We tested here a few weeks ago and the test was good, especially in terms of pace,” he said. The Devil. “The time attack it was a disaster here and we don’t understand why, but we hope that in this race the more rubberized track will help us and that we can do at least one good lap. We will try something already during the weekend, because I think we don’t have time to waste and the test is always something different”.

So, we will see Yamaha working on the progress also during the race weekend, not only on Monday, when MotoGP will stop in Misano for a day of collective testing: “In the tests you feel better because there is more and more rubber on the track and our weak point is the grip. The real test is the one we did two weeks ago, where there was not much rubber. How many tyres do we have? Cal hasn’t tested this year, so we still have a lot of tyres to use. I could go out every lap with a new tyre. In the end we are not focused on the time attack, but I want the team to have some data to understand why we are so slow. I know I can do a flying lap, but right now I don’t have the means to do it”.

Precisely the time attack It is one of the sore points of this M1, from which Quartararo is unable to get the most out of it. Qualifying is now fundamental and, however much you try to recover, if you start from the back-up positions it is difficult to go and fight at the front: “On this track the tyres don’t always drop too much, even with 20 laps you can manage to do a good lap. But the others, when they put on a new tyre, make a big step, while we can’t. I think it depends on the track, but in Aragon the pace was much better than the time attack. But if you qualify 17th you can’t fight for the top positions. On some tracks our potential is to fight for eighth or ninth position, but if you qualify behind you can only fight for 13th position. Our main problem is the rear grip, not so much on exit, but on braking and on the way through”.

“To be honest, with the new soft and little fuel I improved. Normally from the medium to the soft there is a gap. From a tyre that has 22 laps to a new one there is a gap, and from having 10 litres of fuel to having 4 there is another gap. It is at least 5 or 6 tenths minimum, and we were slower,” revealed the Frenchman. “It seems like there is no contact at the rear. It seems like either the tyre is not ready or it is too hot. So you don’t know what is happening. That’s my feeling… The temperature is good, but the feeling is that it is cold or overheated. Push a lot, at the entrance to Turn 3, if you lean too fast you highside quickly. It is not just the first lap that is like this, but for three laps in a row. On the first lap, on the second maximum, you find the lap. But it is not like that for us.”

At Yamaha they continue to work hard to return to the top and, among the various changes at the Iwata factory, there is the new project leader. Lin Jarvis will enjoy retirement in 2025 and will be replaced by Paolo Pavesio: “What did he tell me? No promises, he is new, so it is better that he does not say much (Scherza, ed.). Internally, we knew for a long time that Paolo would take Lin’s place. I knew who he was, but I never had the chance to talk to him before Assen or Sachsenring, I don’t remember. At the moment it’s not a problem, he will be a new member of the team and Lin Jarvis will continue to do his job until the end”.