Fabio Quartararo slams: "Yamaha has not a single strong point"

– Yamaha used the race weekend in Spain as a test. On the one hand, test rider Augusto Fernandez was on the grid with a wildcard, on the other hand, both teams received a new chassis. A new rear swingarm was also tried out.

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There was no further developed V4 engine in Jerez, not even during Monday’s test. No significant progress was evident on the track. Yamaha was even slower than in the previous year, when the inline-four engine was still used.

This was already evident in Friday’s practice. Fabio Quartararo drove 1:36.752 minutes. Last year, he was on pole position with 1:35.610 minutes. As usual, the ex-world champion found clear words about the current situation.

“As it looks, that’s how it looks. I mean, 1.1 seconds off our best lap time in Jerez is really, really bad,” Quartararo doesn’t mince words. He summarizes the comparison to the previous year “like day and night”.

“I mean, last year’s bike had its points where it wasn’t the best in terms of performance and rear grip, also with tire wear.”

“The essential thing is: Last year the bike was quite decent, but it had two major weaknesses – grip and performance. The problem is that we currently don’t have a single strong point.”

“There isn’t a single area where I can say I feel good. I don’t feel good on the brakes, I don’t feel good on corner entry, I don’t feel good in the middle of the corner.”

“I also don’t feel good on corner exit because there’s no grip and the bike doesn’t turn in. So there are very, very many areas with big problems. Now, above all, we know that the potential isn’t there at all.”

“I have zero front wheel feeling. And to be fast, I need a feeling – even if it’s bad, I need to feel what I’m doing. And right now, unfortunately, I’m quite lost in that area.”

“Because part of the result depends on how much I can push. Also, I’m very tense on the bike, I’m not really fluid. That was always my strength. Now it’s not anymore.”

Quartararo: “I’m not stupid, I know how to ride”

In Saturday’s flag-to-flag sprint, Quartararo nevertheless took advantage of the changeable conditions and finished seventh. The dry Grand Prix mercilessly revealed the Yamaha reality once again.

Quartararo lost half a minute over 25 laps. As 14th, he collected two world championship points. The four Yamaha riders found themselves at the back of the field. Only Joan Mir, who had two long-lap penalties, and rookie Diogo Moreira were also back there.

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“Last year I finished two seconds behind Alex [Marquez], this year 35 seconds,” Quartararo states the hard facts. “I’m not stupid, I still know how to ride.”

“So it’s not really in my hands, and it’s not just the rear grip that makes us lose 32 seconds. Yes, I can adapt quite quickly. But the only thing I need is the feeling at the front wheel.”

“Yes, of course we need more top speed because we lack that. But for me, on this kind of track, that’s the least of our problems. I mean, I’m not insisting on working on performance.”

“Of course I want performance, but we need a bike that turns in, that stops, that has a feeling at the front wheel, that has grip,” Quartararo lists. “That’s what I’ve been asking for since September. But we’re finding nothing.”

Miller describes rear wheel grip problems

The concept change from the inline-four to the V4 engine had several reasons. One of them was to make the bike a bit longer and lower, as is the case with Ducati and Aprilia, to better utilize the rear tire.

This also affects the braking phase, because with the inline-four, the bike practically only braked via the front wheel. But it also affects the grip throughout the entire cornering process up to acceleration out of the corner.

Jack Miller explains: “We didn’t switch the four-cylinder for any simple strategy, but to improve braking performance. But we are not able to stop the bike as well as we would like.”

“We’re not using the rear tire enough. The rear tire spends a lot of time in the air, and when it then makes ground contact, it tends to hop a bit on corner entry.”

“So we’re trying to get a bit more performance out of the rear tire. You have to ‘nurture’ this rear tire, so to speak, and we’re not yet succeeding sufficiently at the moment.”

With only 14 world championship points after four race weekends, Yamaha is clearly in last place in the manufacturers’ standings.

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