After the twelfth Grand Prix of the year which took place at Silverstone, Fabio is only using his fourth engine, and he is the only one in this case because his colleagues are all on their fifth, if not their sixth, while they are only allowed seven per season.
For more precision, if certain factory drivers have seven different new engines, at the satellite team level it frequently happens that a driver has five engines at his disposal, two of which are reconditioned by the manufacturer during the season, this which brings the same total of seven. As an indication, a sixth and a seventh new engines may be available, at around 250 euros each.
In Fabio's case, we can only admire the care with which he uses his equipment. For comparison, his teammate Franco Morbidelli used its fifth power unit in England (for FP3, FP4, Q2, warmup and race), just like Valentino Rossi (which has an engine removed since FP3 Brno) and Maverick Vinales.
While Quartararo's talent is evident in saving these engines, it should be noted that he has a small advantage with a rev that is 500 rpm lower than the other three Yamahas. And suddenly what is a handicap in straight lines at top speed becomes an advantage for longevity.
If we compare the top speeds of the four Yamahas during the Austrian GP race (impossible to do for Silverstone with unfortunately the crash in the first corner), we see 309,4 km/h for Morbidelli, 308,5. 306,8 for Viñales, 302,5 for Rossi and XNUMX for Quartararo who had the slowest of all the bikes on the field that day.
Others are less careful than Fabio, and the prize in this area goes to Andrea Iannone as we can see in the table below.
Above: Fabio used his fourth engine at Silverstone for two free practice sessions, Q2, warmup and the race.
Above: Andrea Iannone already has two engines removed from his allocation, and he used his sixth engine for the warmup and the Silverstone race.
Ci-dessus : Les vitesses de pointe lors de la course du GP d’Autriche, dont “El Diablo” a terminé troisième.
Graphs and table © Dorna
Photo © Petronas Sepang Racing Team
