MotoGP Test Portimao J1 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha/8): “I'm slower than in 2022, we won't be ready for the first race, I'm almost sure”

Fabio Quartararo finished his first day of testing at Portimao with his head down. Only eighth with his Yamaha in the middle of the Ducatis and Aprilias to which he now compares in terms of top speed, the Frenchman admits to now having other concerns. Quite simply, he cannot move forward in the work of evolving his M1 because he recognizes that he has not yet found his basic setting from which he could then plan. The rounds continued for the official of the Iwata brand without really contributing much. Enough to consider the future with the greatest caution, if not worse…

fabio quartararo had left the Sepang tests speaking of “ disaster » as soon as it was necessary to look for a time with a new tire and, at Portugal, this Saturday, he did not eradicate evil. And it is profound when we listen to the 2021 World Champion: “ we have been working to find a good base for our bike, which we don't have yet. We have to work more on adjustments than on new features ". He adds : " top speed is not bad, but at the moment I think we have bigger problems, so we will only think about it once we have found our tuning base ».

A research for which everything is sacrificed: “ we still have a lot of work to do, in reality we haven't done a huge amount of work on aerodynamics » recognizes the Frenchman. “ We only tried larger fins and then kept them. Sunday we will try another configuration ».

But that shouldn't break him out of the rut because when asked what's wrong with the M1, he replies: " everything except braking. Braking stability, travel speed. Afterwards it's difficult to understand how to use the tires. In the past, I put on new tires and the bike was even better everywhere. Today though, I put on new tires and it was good in some things and bad in others. Teverything is difficult to understand ».

Fabio Quartararo: “top speed is not bad, but at the moment I think we have bigger problems"

And he adds: “ I would say the fork is one of the positive things we tried, at least it's not a negative thing. Same or better than the previous one, but not worse ". He finishes the inventory with the famous top speed… “ Top speed isn't bad, but at the moment I think we have bigger problems, so we'll only think about that once we find our tuning base ».

The tricolor also explains: “ this did not go well during the qualifying attempt. Here, with the soft tires, I did 1'39'6, while last year in the race, after a weekend where it always rained, I did 1'39'4 with the medium tire. racing in the third round. I had an excellent pace, I held it easily. Today however, I only did 1'39 with the mediums and I was also following Marc Marquez. I'm slower than in 2022 ».

A worrying speech when we know that, this season, qualifying will be essential while we will have to be ready from the start for the sprint events. Besides, Fabio Quartararo is really worried… “ The problem is not only qualifying, but also the pace with new tires in the race. I'm worried about the Sprint Race, because after a few checks against our opponents, I saw that we were even 5 tenths slower in the first laps. Instead, in the simulations from lap 15 to 25 for example, we are maybe a tenth slower. The big difference is made by the new tires, especially in the search for the time ».

The Yamaha rider comes to this conclusion on GP One : " we definitely won't be ready for the first race, that's for sure. Maybe I can't say 100% that this is the case, because we might find a solution tomorrow morning. But at the moment, I really don't think so. I don't feel good on the bike. And that's why for the first time I didn't check the top speeds at the end of the day ". He finishes : " it was hard and I don't know what day tomorrow will be. It's frustrating ».

MotoGP Test Portimao J1: times

Credit classification motogp.com