The French champion Fabio Quartararo saw the MotoGP title slip from his hands and gives yet another warning to Yamaha.
Fabio Quartararo saw the world title slip from his hands, after winning it in 2021 and defending it until mid-2022. Forced to push his Yamaha M1 at best, to fill the technical gaps, from Assen onwards he suffered crashes and was the protagonist of some unfortunate episodes which forced him to lose ground to Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati, which went from -91 to +13 at the end of the last race at Ricardo Tormo in Valencia.
Difficult to swallow the defeat, knowing that in terms of talent he had nothing to envy his rival from Turin. The difference was above all in the bike, despite the fact that he had been making specific requests to the Iwata engineers for over a year. More acceleration and power for the M1: “It’s a difficult situation. The other riders are struggling, but for me the M1 is all in all a good bike that really lacks acceleration and power – he explains in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com -. I always put pressure on the Japanese engineers because if we manage to eliminate this handicap, we will have the chance to fight for the win every weekend“.
Fabio Quartararo is not afraid to change bikes
Next season Yamaha will only have two bikes on track instead of four, as the RNF satellite team of Razlan Razali has decided to join Aprilia. For the Nice pilot, not much will change compared to 2022, given that the data from Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder they have never proved to be useful for supporting the development of the bike and offering valuable data to the top rider. “We have never cross-referenced data with the customer team this season. I don’t know Yamaha’s exact plans for 2023, but it’s absolutely fine for me if we only have two bikes“.
Fabio Quartararo believes it is sufficient to equip the M1 with more horsepower to be able to keep up with the Ducati. After all, despite the many technical difficulties, he finished in second place in the drivers’ standings, demonstrating that he can still make a certain difference. There are still two years of contract with the Japanese manufacturer and we will have to aim to regain the world title. Conversely, the 23-year-old from Nice will look around, as happened at the start of the season.
He seemed about to say goodbye to Yamaha, the news of Suzuki’s exit from the World Championship forced him to review his plans, prompting him to renew his contract. Even if he arrived with a certain delay, leaving the top management on their toes. There were alternatives, but he decided not to take risks: “When you switch manufacturers, you never know exactly what to expect“, he concluded Fabio Quartararo. “Of course you have to adapt, but you will hardly find yourself in a situation where you have a bike that doesn’t work. There are always positives and negatives, but in the current situation there is no need to fear any change“.
