Yamaha’s progress seems set to be exponential, judging by the evolution of the performance curve in recent months. The test carried out in Sepaeg last week is seen as a now very discouraging signal, to the point that Ducati is beginning to get involved.
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“Having seen the times and everything else, I would have to say that the situation is positive,” Massimo Meregalli said in an interview with GPOE.com. “These are positive days. Let’s say that we started to see something during the Shakedow. Personally, I was waiting [for the third day] to understand the hierarchy, to see what the real situation was once all the official drivers had done a time attack.”
This lap laced and cofiguration of qualifying, Friday morning, allowed Qυartararo to be classified third in the final hierarchy, at just over two tenths of a second behind the leading Dυcati. “For the moment, the position doesn’t interest me so much, but the fact of having significantly reduced our delay on the fastest, yes. The latter were clearly less well off,” the team director said.
Massimo Meregalli puts this reduction in the gap between Yamaha and the top down to a number of significant developments: “The bike hasn’t changed radically. As we did when we got used to it, we updated several areas. I’ve done all the things we’ve done, the improvements or the modifications, or anything. And in my opinion, having four drivers on the M1 also starts to bring something.”
Pramac drivers played their part in the smooth running of the tests.
Photo by: Pramac Raciпg
If he judges that the arrival of Pramac has already borne fruit, it is because the Italian manager has seen the evaluations come much faster: “We have accelerated our working methods. The material is the same for everyone. When the time comes to try out certain things and three pilots approve of it, the fourth does not need to try it, or else he will. This allows us to accelerate development and guide the engineers. It’s a little bit everything: the approach, the way of doing things, the exchange of information. Before, it was just like in the past, but more clearly.”
Immediately after Liñ Jarvis’s replacement at the head of Yamaha Motor Racing, Paolo Pavesio shares this positive view of the overall methods and results obtained so far. Asked by the official MotoGP website where the M1 has made the most progress, he explains: “It is quite obvious from the chronos that the time attack has been improved. It was the last of the companies, but after speaking with the pilots I would also say that we did multiple things that helped reduce this delay.”
“Maybe the time attack is the most obvious because what you see at the end is the ranking [but] it’s not the qualifying session, it’s not the race. We are very concerned about the regularity and very concerned about the material because we have collected all the pieces these few days.”
Smiles are back at Yamaha.
The programme leaders remain cautious, however, about drawing conclusions too hastily. Like Fabio Quartararo, who, although he can hide his anger, refuses to formulate potentially overly ambitious objectives, they assure that they want to achieve confirmation of these promising first steps.rs.
“We have clearly said that we have work to do, which is to catch up on our backlog. We know that it is a journey, we have brought things that were worked on and others that were sure of it, we know that we have to rework before proposing them again, but overall it has been six very positive days”, Paolo Pavesio said.
“We are aware of the numbers and the way it happened, but we know that this is just the first stone of the new house we are trying to build. We must remain truly humble, because we want to dream of the summit and this is the stage. It’s important because it gives energy and positivity, and when you put in all the effort you put in during the winter it’s important to be rewarded. I think that’s for everyone who worked, for all the managers. It gives motivation to the drivers and the team, but it’s just the first step.”
“This is the first test. [After Buriram] to have certainties about where we will find them in an effective way and how to get there in the championship,” said Massimo Meregalli. “I think it is difficult to have goals at the moment because we are coming out of a complicated season. After several years, I have completed this test differently, in a positive way, but it is too early to get carried away. It is better to keep your feet on the ground and approach each test and each course individually.”
