Despite gradual improvements, Yamaha continues to face some difficulties this MotoGP season in having a capable and competitive bike. Currently, low grip performance is one of the main concerns for Fabio Quartararo – who will approach the Austrian GP without making too many changes to his bike.
The Frenchman explained: ‘We struggle a lot with the grip. When I say grip it’s not only in acceleration; it’s stopping the bike, mid-corner, so a little bit everywhere. So this is clearly one point that we are missing, and I think it’s our biggest issue right now’.
Quartararo then revealed that he will revert to his original bike for the Austrian GP, making minimal adjustments: ‘We tried one bike in Silverstone, we go back to our standard here – which means that is the same as Sachsenring and Assen. And I’ll try to keep it more on a base, test less things because we have also a test in Misano on Tuesday and Wednesday’.
In the 2021 champion’s view, the ideal scenario would be a mix between the YZR-M1 from the British GP and the one they will use at the Red Bull Ring: ‘Usually here is always a track with quite a good grip. I think that Sector 1 and Sector 2 will not be so bad; in the last two sectors I think we will struggle because it’s quite a lot of turning. But with the bike that we will race, I think the stopping performance is not too bad. But we are missing some corner speed and some turning. So we have to mix a little bit the bike that we tested in Silverstone with this one, and the most important thing is to find much more grip – by mechanical grip and by electronics’.
Externally, the Yamaha YZR-M1 has not undergone significant changes, and Quartararo explained why: ‘I think the problem it’s not from outside, it’s from inside. To be honest, what we changed outside was the best change we made. The aero that we have been… I think in Barcelona we changed the aero and it was better. But I think that to find mechanical grip is not by the aero; maybe a little bit, but the amount of grip that we miss is a lot. And also when there is grip, the bike is working not too bad. But as soon as it drops, the gap between having no grip and having grip is way bigger than the others. So this is what we have to fix, and I think this is mechanical grip and especially electronics’.
Regarding his expectations, «El Diablo» was cautious: ‘We know that the result will not be super, super great like we used to have here, but at least to fight for the best position we can get and try to don’t move so much’.