Quartararo “frustrated” over Yamaha’s wasted MotoGP development work

The 2021 world champion has scored just one podium from the opening five rounds of the 2023 campaign and is currently 45 points off the championship lead.

Yamaha threw a lot of development parts to its M1 over the winter, which ended up making matters worse for Quartararo throughout testing.

This forced him to go back to older settings on his bike on the last day of testing in Portugal, before deciding after Le Mans to use 2021 settings on his bike for the coming triple-header starting this weekend in Mugello.

Commenting on this, he said on Thursday in Italy: “In the first moments, it’s of course frustrating because during the pre-season we tried an amount of things that I never tried before: chassis, engine, aerodynamics.

“But the fact that we use zero of those things is frustrating.

“Then there was the Jerez test, we had new things and we used nothing [after it].

“So, it’s frustrating but now we have to focus on what we have and give our best.

“I think having these three races in a row will be good also for my confidence to have the same bike.

“This is what I need, and maybe it’s not the best but at least I know the bike and I will have to adapt to what I have.”

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Yamaha has continued to battle a lack of power with its 2023 bike, made worse by an inefficient aero concept.

But Quartararo, who won at Mugello in 2021 and was second in 2022, doesn’t think the Italian GP venue’s 1.1km main straight will prove a major disadvantage for Yamaha because the final corner isn’t a low-gear acceleration zone.

“When we start from slow corners, it’s something that is a weak point for us from aerodynamics and power in the low gears,” he noted.

“But coming from a fast corner, I think the disadvantage of power is much less.

“So, I think in the straight will be much better than in Le Mans or Austin. So, this is something that will be less problematic than the past.”