Having raced the last five races of the year with the 2019 bike, the Jerez test allowed Andrea Dovizioso to discover a Yamaha closer to the one that brought Fabio Quartararo to the MotoGP title this season. The Frenchman was often the only member of the brand capable of aiming for the top positions, amid the tensions with Maverick Vinales, the injury of Franco Morbidelli and the decline of Valentino Rossi.
Back in action from the San Marino GP, Dovizioso has yet to discover the secrets of Yamaha and, by his own admission, is currently unable to exploit it in the same way as the world champion. “I still have to understand everything, but it is not easy to do what he did this year,” said the rider of the RNF team, the new name of the Yamaha satellite team, after discovering the bike used by “El Diablo”, who confirmed what he had already guessed. “As I expected, Fabio did something crazy this year,” he added.
Since joining MotoGP in 2019, Quartararo has only ridden Yamahas and therefore has only known the philosophy of the Iwata manufacturer, learning to extract the best from it. Dovizioso, on the other hand, is not at that point with the M1. The bike has evolved a lot from the 2012 one he had ridden in the Tech3 team and later developed his style by riding a Ducati for eight years. Consequently, the two have different requests for the development of the bike, with Quartararo wanting more power and Andrea asking for more grip from the rear.
“We have a different situation: he easily exploits the potential of the bike and can look at the details, understand how much better the new material is and can talk about it. His situation on this is clear. I’m still struggling to ride this bike well, so I’m in a completely different situation. He is able to enjoy the potential of the bike because he has only ridden Yamahas. “
“We have a similar feeling, but I complain more than some things and he more than others. But that’s normal, because I don’t ride in the best way or the way he became world champion. He started from a Yamaha base. and knows 100% the characteristics and the DNA of the bike “.
Recognizing Quartararo as the “reference” in Yamaha, having always been fast with the bike developed at Iwata, the Italian rider has to cancel the automatisms built over the years in Ducati, a difficult task: “I can be fast enough, because I did a good time. with the medium tire at the rear, so it’s not bad, but it doesn’t come instinctively: I have to stop very often to look at the data “.
“Sometimes I have to stop, think again about what I have to do differently, because it’s really different from Ducati. You can’t imagine how difficult it is to ride a bike in such a different way from what you’re used to.”
These differences are also forcing Dovizioso to reconsider every term to describe his bike. Quartararo, for example, believes the 2021 Yamaha requires more punchy ride than it debuted in 2019, but that level of aggression is very different from what a Ducati requires.
“As I said before, Quartararo has only ridden Yamahas. Riding a Yamaha aggressively … it’s hard to explain! It’s so different from what I’ve ridden in the past that being aggressive is another thing. But it’s normal. when you only have experience with one bike and when you compare two “.
“But yes, you can be more aggressive with the bike I’m using now than the 2019 one. The 2019 one had great turning, but the other areas really weren’t,” he added. “Now we are able to brake harder and be a little more aggressive.”
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