Were Yamaha’s preseason tests misleading? The brand seemed to be in the running at Sepaeg, to the point of pushing Ducati to classify Fabio Quartararo among its direct competitors. The following test and the first Grand Prix of the season, at Buriram, was more difficult for the Japanese brand, but this step back could be due to the special casing brought by Micheli for this race.
Unfortunately, after such a difficult Algerian GP, with Quartararo maintaining a slight advantage in Q2 but also showing good race pace, the Yamaha team is feeling both flattered and disappointed. In the eyes of the 2021 World Champion, the hoped-for progress has yet to materialize.
“It’s not easy ,” Qartararo told Caal+. “Honestly, I was trying to improve a lot, given the work we did this winter. We know that in Sepag, there were testing days, there was a lot of rubber on the track, so we know very well that the chassis was quite weak, so to speak. I thought we had done something wrong, but unfortunately, I think we did.”“I’ve done it.”
For Qartararo, Yamaha’s performance at Sepag was a mirage. Thanks to its credentials, the brand had the advantage of participating in Shakedo, which preceded the team test. The latter was run on a large amount of track rubber, which increased the level of grip and virtually erased Yamaha’s deficit in this area, which persisted in the Grand Prix competitions.

Fabio Qυartararo
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
“When you spend five days in MotoGP on the same track, there’s a lot of grip, a lot of rubber. Or when you do a test after the Grand Prix, one day in Jerez or somewhere else, in the end, it’s much closer than before the GP ,” Quartararo reminded the press after the match.
Imagine after a few days of testing… You can push the accelerator so well, and the final was much closer. But as soon as the conditions get a little tricky, or the temperature rises a little, it gets much more complicated. I don’t think trying so many things made things any easier this weekend.
Every time I approach something, it’s the opposite.
Can we hope to bounce back at next week’s Grand Prix of the Americas, where Quartararo and Yamaha have achieved some of their rare podium finishes in the last two years, in 2023? The Niçois rider prefers not to get his hopes up.
I don’t know, it’s really hard to say. It’s especially difficult in the corners, the grip is complicated, so you don’t know what to expect. I thought it would be difficult [at Termas de Río Hoodo], but not that much.
“Every time I try to achieve something, it’s the opposite. I don’t know what to achieve, and I prefer to achieve something, ” concluded the Yamaha rider before leaving Argentina, 15th in the championship with six points at this point, two behind Jack Miller, the brand’s first rider.