Yamaha racer, Fabio Quartararo, is still far from satisfied with the development of the 2024 version of the M1 motorbike at the MotoGP pre-season test session in Qatar on Monday (19/2/2024). Fabio Quartararo took part in the first day’s session in 10th place with a best time of 1 minute 52.637 seconds.
Fabio Quartararo managed to complete a total of 58 laps on the Losail International Circuit track. Even though he recorded one of the highest top speeds in the session, this French racer still complained about the grip of his motorbike which meant that his time was still scattered in the middle of the table.
“The problem is the same as before. The grip is bad,” said Quartararo at Motorsport.com. “Even if we put new tires on and start to make up time, I don’t see any improvement,” he said. “With tires that have completed 11 laps, I am only 0.2 seconds slower than with new tires. This is unacceptable,” complained Quartararo.
The first French racer to win in the premier class of the World Championship even stated that changing tires did not make any changes. “It’s the same, very aggressive on the motorbike. When we installed new tires, basically there was no change,” said the 24 year old racer.
He added that this obstacle was more or less the same as previous seasons. “Like sector three, I don’t know where Pecco Bagnaia could lose time, who uses medium tires,” continued the 2021 MotoGP world champion. He also saw what happened as a shortcoming that had to be addressed quickly by Massiomo Bartolini as Yamaha’s technical director who had just moved from Ducati this year. “With Max (Bartolini, technical director), who came from Ducati, we made some big changes where in the past we did it little by little,” he said.
Yamaha has improved, emphasised Quartararo, but so has the competition. Fabio Quartararo is hoping for the Bartolini effect in the coming months. “The new engineer who came from the Reds started six weeks ago. We need more time and we need more tests. I think we need another three to four months to see the progress of our bike. Hopefully they will be noticeable.”
