The Monster Energy Yamaha team appears to be making some progress in MotoGP, but they are still far from competing for the top positions. Fabio Quartararo believes that there are two key characteristics that, if restored to their former levels, will enable significant progress.
The 2021 champion noted that while the YZR-M1 has gained power, it has lost two advantages it used to have: ‘The engine is fast, I never complained about the power this year. But we used to have agility and a lot of turning with the bike, and no top speed. So now we have the top speed, but we don’t have the agility and the turning of the past. So, the goal number one is to find back this agility and the turning we used to have. That’s why I think Mugello test was great, because we tested several bikes and we know we have to work a lot on the engine’.
In Quartararo’s view, Ducati now has better cornering performance than Yamaha once had. However, he believes that by regaining those past levels, Yamaha can significantly improve their results:
– I think the turning we used to have, Ducati has improved compared to us – I think the turning of Ducati now is even better than we used to have in the past. We try to be as close as possible for this year, but already if we find the agility and the turning we had in the past and the power we have now, we can be fighting for much more in the top six/seven.