The improvement of the official Yamahas during the last Thailand Grand Prix Would she have done more harm than good? One might believe it to listen to the latest comments of Valentino Rossi on the subject. Fairly direct remarks aimed at Yamaha engineers who seem to rejoice a little too quickly for his taste...
23 races without a victory, but she was not that far away last weekend on the Buriram side. Enough to give wings and morale. Or believe in a mirage, which would be a mistake. Because on the balance sheet, Maverick Vinales only scored his fourth podium of the season while Valentino Rossi claims five in fifteen races. Which is far from the mark for a factory called Yamaha.
So, the Doctor tries to bring Yamaha’s men back to earth… “ Unfortunately, there is the risk of Yamaha engineers thinking they have solved all the problems from Thailand. But that would be having a loser mentality ».
Absolutely… He continues: “ our engineers are often happy when Maverick does a good time during a test, and they say to themselves “that’s it, we’re there!” ". But if I were a Yamaha engineer, I would focus more on the results of this second part of the season rather than on the time of a single lap or a first row on the starting grid ».
For Thailand, Vale insists: “ on paper, this track should not have been suitable for the Yamaha. I expected to encounter more problems there. But I also expected to be stronger in Misano. And we suffered there. I think it was more the grip of the asphalt than the track itself that helped us in Buriram ».
He ends on speedweek: " to be competitive is to be competitive everywhere. We are still missing something. But we'll see at Motegi ". For a Japanese Grand Prix which will take place next weekend.
