Last in the constructors' championship, Yamaha has yet to find a solution to the problems encountered by the M1. Yamaha Motor Racing CEO Paolo Pavesio tries to focus on the positives as he reviews the Argentine GP.
The Yamaha clan had another challenging Grand Prix in Argentina, during which the riders saw their competitiveness decline compared to the others. Despite qualifying in Q2 for the representatives of the official team, the two races revealed the performance problems that persist. Alex Rins, Jack Miller and Fabio Quartararo finished 11th, 13th and 14th respectively in Sunday's main race (Miguel Oliveira missed the race to return to Portugal to take exams), and the Japanese manufacturer remains in last place in the championship.
Paolo Pavesio, the general manager of Yamaha Motor Racing, took stock in a video shared by Yamaha: "It's been a tough weekend, but despite that, we can see some positives, and I'm mainly thinking of the lap speed, which we showed [on Saturday] with two riders going straight into Q2. The pure speed of the bike has definitely improved. However, it's been a tough weekend in terms of race pace."
“We struggled to find a good balance to really exploit our potential and manage traction on corner exit. This affected the overall performance of our drivers. All three drivers scored points [on Sunday]. Fabio was unlucky at the start when he was hit by another driver. But we want more and we are motivated to start working again, and quite happy to be racing again in two weeks in Austin.”
Paolo Pavesio
On the Moto2 team side, Tony Arbolino and Izan Guevara finished 11th and 15th in the race. "Our two drivers also finished in the points, but the most important thing is that we saw them faster than in Thailand.", Pavesio added. “Unfortunately, after Tony got into the top 10, he had a compartment syndrome problem so he couldn't exploit the full potential [of his bike]. Izan, who started 23rd, moved up to ninth. But after such a strong comeback, the tires were really damaged, and he lost places in the second part of the race. There's still work to be done there too, but we saw positive signs, and both riders are very motivated to get back on track quickly.”
In MotoGP and Moto2, Yamaha still has a lot of work to do to make up the deficit and make its bike as competitive as the others. The demands of the Austin track could complicate things further at the next Grand Prix.
