Yamaha had gone to Mugello very full of energy after the encouraging test carried out in Tuscany a few weeks earlier, but the grand prix was a disaster. Then the team flew to Valencia for a new test and unfortunately the rain ruined the plans a bit. Fabio Quartararo hoped to make progress in the development of the M1 and show up at Assen with greater confidence. In the past the TT Circuit was ideal for the characteristics of Iwata’s bike, but in recent years it has lost its strengths.
MotoGP, Quartararo believes in the Yamaha project
The French rider fought for podiums and victories in his first years in MotoGP, but in 2023 there was a technical collapse of Yamaha and this year a revolution was implemented that takes time to bear fruit. All this has forced him to take a different approach, because the expectations in the grand prix have totally changed and he must focus on development rather than the result itself: “Staying calm and patient was difficult – he said at crash.net – but we are working well and taking small steps. I always push to the maximum, the day we have a competitive bike I will be ready“.
Obviously, Quartararo cannot be enthusiastic about having had to scale back his objectives, but it was necessary: “The mentality has changed, because we know we can’t win. It’s reality. Now the mentality is aimed at improving the bike, but the day will come when we will fight for victories and this will change my mentality and that of the team“. We need a winning Yamaha M1 to raise the bar again.
Fabio dreams of new victories
He knows it will take time, but the 26-year-old from Nice is very motivated to get back to fighting to get back to the top step of the podium: “I miss it and that’s why my motivation is really high. Even if we are behind in the rankings, the priority is to move up. I’m a winner, I’m working so hard and we must never give up. I miss having the butterflies in your stomach that you have when you fight for the World Championship, if you fight for current positions it’s not the same. When you start on the front row you have pressure not to fall and to be fast to fight. Now if you fall it’s less relevant, because you’re not playing for something important“.
The pressure of having to aim for success is missing for Quartararo, convinced that sooner or later he will have an M1 capable of allowing him to stay in front: “We will be back, exactly when I don’t know. But Yamaha has never worked like this in six years“. It takes time, he and the team have been repeating this for months and therefore we need to be patient. Obviously, the competition is not standing still in the meantime and therefore it is not easy to reduce the gap quickly and clearly. The Iwata house is making its maximum effort to make its project successful, we’ll see if it succeeds.
Photo: Instagram @fabioquartararo20
