– With 40 World Championship points, Yamaha is in fifth, and thus last place, in the manufacturers’ standings after six MotoGP race weekends. The gap to Honda in fourth place is 24 World Championship points.
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The Yamaha trend is still positive, as for the first time this season a double-digit number of World Championship points were scored recently in Le Mans and Barcelona. “We are gathering more and more time and experience,” says Pramac rider Jack Miller.
“Something like this is not built overnight,” he refers to the complexity of the new V4 project. “I mean, I don’t know if anyone had different expectations, but something like this takes time.”
“I say it over and over again. It sounds like a broken record, but look at every other manufacturer in the field. How was their first season with their motorcycles? And how big were the gaps?”
“I think the Yamaha engineers have done a fantastic job just to get a raw product on its feet. Now we are at the point where we refine it, make it better step by step, and reduce the gap.”
“And I mean, that doesn’t happen without trial and error.” For example, new chassis were used in recent races to optimize flex and gather experience.
Fabio Quartararo has recently become stronger
Recently, Fabio Quartararo’s performance was remarkable. At his home race in Le Mans, he finished fifth in the sprint and sixth in the Grand Prix. Afterwards, he placed fifth in Barcelona.
These results were a clear contrast to the first race weekends, where Quartararo barely made it into the top 10. During the Monday test after the race in Jerez, crucial setup adjustments were made.
“In Le Mans, the biggest difference was not that I had more performance on the bike. It’s just that in the first four races I wasn’t able to ride, and now I can push,” Quartararo names the difference.
“That is the biggest difference that happened in Le Mans.” A significant step was the return to the old aerodynamics of the inline four-cylinder. Although it costs some top speed, it gives Quartararo a good feeling for the front wheel.
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And that is exactly the decisive factor for his performance: “Yes, I can feel the limit. And as I said: In Le Mans, I was completely at the limit from the first lap to the end.”
Since the race in Barcelona was not representative due to two red flags, only Le Mans serves as a benchmark after the Jerez test. There, Quartararo was only eight seconds behind over the entire race distance.
Is he surprised by that after the many problems in the first races? “Yes, but I have to wait for the next races where we finish. If we stay less than ten seconds behind the winner in every race, that’s good.”
“But we haven’t brought anything new. That’s why we have to understand how to find all that we are missing. Because it’s not just one thing. We are missing many things. We haven’t found the key yet to solve any one of them.”
Top speed still a big deficit
Yamaha still lacks top speed. On the one-kilometer straight in Barcelona, the four M1 riders were the slowest. They were about ten km/h slower than the fastest motorcycles.
A further development of the new V4 engine is still awaited. “Of course, we are worried,” says Quartararo. “Because in the end, as I said, we haven’t found more performance on the motorcycle.”
“I have only found one way to push myself to the maximum. In the first four races, I just survived and didn’t feel good on the bike. Now I feel good, really good.”
“But we lack performance. So those are two different things. But at least now I know how much I can push over the entire race distance and also over a single lap.”
With 37 World Championship points, Quartararo is in 13th place in the standings after six race weekends. His teammate Alex Rins has collected nine points so far. Rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu has three World Championship points and Miller has two.
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