Fabio Quartararo’s start to the season was far from easy, a qualifying below expectations led him to fight in the mid-pack in the opening stages of both races in Portugal, closing the first weekend of the 2023 season with only 8 points and a tenth position in the general classification.
Now the MotoGP has moved to Argentina, where the Yamaha rider aims to improve. It will not be easy however, the problems remain and are not easy to solve. On the eve of the action on the track, El Diablo takes a step back and thinks back to how good there was last weekend and what needs to be done to progress in these three South American days: “The pace wasn’t too bad, but starting from behind it was difficult, the first laps were complicated. We have to try to understand what needs to be improved in order to be able to ride in a similar way to how others do, so that we can do some overtaking ”.
“Clearly we need to improve, the problem is similar both in the time attack and in the race. We have to use these races to progress, especially for qualifying. Especially with our bike, qualifying is fundamental. The potential is there, we can be very fast, but it’s also about fighting with the others and we have some difficulties there. We are working with Yamaha to try and figure out how to be close to the others on corner exit and also prepare for overtaking. We should make some overtaking that won’t be easy, we hope to find a solution soon, but calmly, there are still many races ”, he explains.
Compared to last year’s Quartararo, who was very nervous and harsh towards Yamaha, the Fabio at the start of the season is decidedly calmer and more lucid, even if the problems haven’t been fully resolved, on the contrary: “I don’t know how to explain it, because we don’t know either. However, what is certain is that with the little we have changed on the bike this year, we have improved a lot, especially in the lap times, but we need to use more power in the acceleration phases. We could use more power “But we can’t with the wheelie. It’s something we’re working on. But honestly, the problem is that we can’t do a really good qualifying lap, we don’t know why.”
The Yamaha rider can’t go too far in explaining the current situation, but what is clear from his words is that the M1 has increased power. However, in the garage you can’t take full advantage of it: “It’s not a matter of power, I can’t explain everything well, because I think it’s a bit more reserved. In any case, it is a problem that mainly concerns the power we still have, and there is also the fact that we are unable to exploit it as we would like, especially in the moments when we are not at the limit of the engine, when we need more acceleration but we are shooting. It’s a problem that makes us say that in qualifying we can’t set good lap times and in the race we can’t overtake”:
However, if there is one step forward made by Yamaha, it is the engine. Despite the difficulties of the tests, Quartararo believes that progress has been made: “It’s better. Then, when I’m with the Aprilias and the Ducatis, we can’t get close. We can’t even keep up with the slipstream. They too have improved, but we are missing something. It is certain that there are still steps to take. Now we know that we cannot do anything with the engine and we will have to find a solution to try to use it anyway. It will not be easy, but we are working on it and there are still 40 races , 20 events, so we’ll have to keep calm because it’s easy to get angry.”
With more peace of mind, Quartararo and the Yamaha will be able to recover ground, even if now it seems rather difficult to think of bringing Ducati and Aprilia closer: “Yes, I’m more serene. At the moment we are clearly inferior above all to Aprilia and Ducati, but we still have to be calm. Don’t think too much about it, because right now it’s easy to look at these two brands. For now, I’m staying focused on us and trying to (bring out) our maximum potential.”
“I don’t expect big improvements…yes, we can improve at Jerez, which is a small track, like Sachsenrin and Assen. They are tracks where you go fast, tracks that I like and I think the bike’s potential isn’t so important. but last year in qualifying they gave us half a second from Pecco. It’s favorable in terms of pace, but it’s not even the best track”, explains the rider from Nice, reiterating how difficult it is to improve visibly in the current MotoGP.
“I can always do better and that’s why I always try to take the positives. I know full well that we are not perfect, so I know that I can always make things better. I don’t think there’s one person who can really do everything, but with all the staff we have, I think everyone can do a little bit to make things better. The only thing I think at the moment is that during practice we work on the race pace, it’s automatic. But the main thing is to get that time in FP1 and FP2, but then doing it again in qualifying will be more complicated,” he concludes.
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