Yamaha is “sleeping” on its troubled MotoGP bike, says Quartararo

Quartararo has spent the entirety of the Jerez weekend expressing his unhappiness at the 2023 Yamaha package, which he said on Friday had steadily lost all of its strong points at the Spanish GP venue over the last four years.

The 2021 world champion, whose previous worst Jerez qualifying in MotoGP was second, struggled to 16th in Saturday’s shootout and could only manage 12th in the sprint race.

Speaking to Canal+, Quartararo once again aired his frustrations about the bike and says Yamaha has to “change the mentality of the team” if it is to ever improve.

"We lost almost all the strong points, [when I was] for example making the difference in corner speed,” he said.

“Braking is still one of our strong points. We're going to have to find a solution and, above all, change the mentality of the team because I think we're more sleeping than doing something good.”

Quartararo says he was powerless to overtake any rider in front of him in the sprint despite feeling that he was faster than them.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Starting from 16th if we stay in 16th place I’m not able to overtake,” he added.

“And this is the biggest problem, because I’m faster than the guys I had in front but even at one second [difference] I still feel like the tyre is really bad.

“This is a problem that we cannot solve. Looking at the guys in front, like Brad [Binder], going sideways, if I did that the front is sliding straight away.

“It’s a problem we’ve never really solved. This is one of our biggest problems.

“We started extra, extra low [with the front tyre pressure] and we arrived at a normal high.

“But this is not the problem. I mean, it’s a problem of grip.

“The rear tyre is not so bad, but the front – I’m turning and I’m turning straight. I’m not able to lean the bike. I’m doing 1m38s, I was feeling slow. I could go much faster but I’m not able.”

Quartararo was one of the biggest losers of the lap one red flag instigated by his team-mate Franco Morbidelli’s collision with Alex Marquez.

The Frenchman had leaped up from 16th to eighth in the first two corners, but couldn’t make the same progress in the second start.

However, even without the red flag, Quartararo believes he wouldn’t have been able to advance on eighth.

“Tough day, especially on the qualifying, I didn’t expect to be that slow,” he said.

“In the morning with 10 laps on the tyre I did a 1m37.3s, but I put two new tyres on and I’m only three tenths faster. So, this was a proper disaster.

“And then in the race, as soon as we are behind one rider, we are not able to stay with them.

“Even in the first start when I made up nine positions, I would have stayed in exactly the same place because I’m not able to overtake, I’m not able to stick with the front guy – whoever the guy is.

“I was behind [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, I had to keep one second of distance. So, that’s an issue we’ve had so many times.”

Additional reporting by German Garcia Casanova