At the MotoGP weekend in Motegi, Yamaha experienced a big bust: The frustration with Fabio Quartararo and teammate Alex Rins continues to build.
The latest progress from Yamaha in Misano and Mandalika provided some hope. But at the home Grand Prix in Motegi, the former world champions experienced a disappointing weekend. Former champion Fabio Quartararo finished 12th in both the sprint and the Grand Prix. The Frenchman was more than 32 seconds behind. Teammate Alex Rins came away empty-handed in 16th place. With degrading tires, the Yamaha M1 was almost impossible for Rins to control.
Quartararo spoke of a “disastrous” feeling for his bike at Motegi. The Frenchman complains that the bike is very sensitive when it comes to the type of racetrack. “You only have to look at the gap. Only KTM was able to keep up with the Ducatis to some extent,” comments Quartararo, referring to the large gap at Motegi.
“We realize that we have problems with grip even compared to Honda. In this respect, they are clearly better than us. But I didn’t expect us to be so far behind. On the second lap of the race, it seems as if the others are using fresh tires and ours are about to end. It’s really difficult to understand,” ponders Quartararo.
The Yamaha M1 was unable to convince either on a fast lap or in race trim. The heavy tire wear threw the Yamaha riders far back on Sunday. In addition, the bike was physically demanding to ride.
“I’m dead,” Quartararo noted after the race. “My arms were exhausted halfway through the race. I hurt all over. This is also due to the grip. As soon as the grip decreases, the bike can no longer be turned over. You also feel this when braking. The bike does not decelerate and you have to push very hard.“
”This is unacceptable”: Fabio Quartararo runs out of fuel again
Quartararo crossed the finish line with an empty tank, just like in Misano. “We ran out of fuel again. It’s bad enough that we’re bad on the track. But it gets even worse when we run out of fuel,” complains Quartararo.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do about this, but it’s unacceptable to come to the finish line without fuel in two out of three races,” complains the Yamaha factory rider, who didn’t receive a warning. Yamaha has developed a system that uses different colored control lights to indicate to the driver whether he should change the engine mapping to complete the race with the remaining fuel.
“At Misano I saw a light that never went out. Here I saw no signal at all. It’s disappointing,” Quartararo is annoyed. “But I don’t think a different mapping would have helped us anyway, especially considering the positions we’ve taken this weekend. I don’t think we had the leeway for that.”
Unrideable Yamaha M1: Even upright, the rear wheel spun
Alex Rins was more than 40 seconds down in the Japanese Grand Prix. Finishing in 16th place, the Spaniard came away empty-handed in both the sprint and the main race. Quartararo was not the only one to reach his physical limits. Rins also had to fight his way through. “I’m completely destroyed,“ commented Rins. ‘I rode all the laps with a pulse of 190. I gave it everything I had. But it was really difficult.’
”The first part of the race wasn’t too bad. We rode with the set-up from the Austrian race to see if we could improve our braking by improving the rear wheel’s contact patch. It went a bit better. I felt the bike better. But with ten laps to go, when the tire degraded, I could hardly control the slip,“ describes Rins.
”Even when accelerating in an upright position, the rear wheel spun. The rear tire was flat in the middle area. We have to find something. It can’t be like this. I’m not happy with the situation,” Rins notes critically.
Was the Motegi performance proof that Yamaha urgently needs a V4 bike? “We won’t have the V4 in the final races yet. Maybe we’ll get it halfway through next season,” muses Rins, pointing to the time it will take to introduce the new engine: “It’s a project. We have to find something before then.”
Rins draws hope from the fact that he was able to follow team-mate Quartararo better in the Grand Prix than in the sprint. “Fabio is currently our only point of reference,” notes Rins, who lost touch with the Frenchman when his rear tire degraded.
Even the Honda RC213V seemed more competitive than the Yamaha M1 at Motegi. Rins also realized this when he was eventually outpaced by Honda factory rider Luca Marini. “When Marini overtook me at the end, I couldn’t follow him anymore. That’s the reality, the hard reality,” Rins concludes.
