Fabio Quartararo says that his Yamaha machine is losing “all its strengths” despite having gained more engine power, the Frenchman admitting the M1 has “lost its balance.”
Quartararo narrowly lost out to Francesco Bagnaia in securing a second straight MotoGP riders crown in 2022 having lifted the prize a year earlier following a dominant campaign, Ducati pilot Bagnaia reversing a 91 point deficit mid-way through the year to a 17 point victory as Quartararo started to struggle with his M1’s lack of power as Ducati got a handle on its Desmosedici.
Quartararo was outspoken in his desire for Yamaha to bring more power to its inline-4 power M1 prototype as a result of his title loss, a task the Japanese manufacturer was able to achieve for the ’23 campaign – though it has since struggled for outright pace due to Quartararo as well as team-mate Franco Morbidelli finding it tough to get a handle on the “aggressive” M1.
Speaking to Austrian publication Speedweek, Quartararo rued that Yamaha had managed to eradicate several advantages the marque enjoyed in terms of chassis balance as a result of bringing more power to the machine – explaining that the outfit was struggling to make progress in any single area without losing ground in another.
“I just have no feeling on the bike as it’s super aggressive and it doesn’t turn in as usual,” said Quartararo.
“We’re losing all of our strengths that saved us when we were too slow on the straights. At that time we had certain advantages in other areas, for example cornering speed.
“Today we’re making progress in some area, but that doesn’t change the outcome because it slows us down somewhere else.
“We cannot make progress in two areas at the same time. It looks like we have more power now, but we lose more on corners than we gain on the straights.
“We got better with the engine, but we lost our balance.
“I’ve never had such an aggressive bike as a rider, and we lost the advantage in turning.
“If the bike was aggressive I could live with that if we still had a performance that made us fight for the top spots.”
