2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo is unhappy with Yamaha’s approach of testing “way too many things” on race weekends in its attempts to get back to the front of the grid.
Quartararo is a key component to Yamaha’s new change of direction, re-establishing his faith in the team by signing a new two-year contract extension through till the end of 2026.
With the Japanese marque making the most out of its concessions rulings, the team has debuted several new parts during race weekends after trying them out in a number of private tests.
Quartararo however thinks this plan doesn’t achieve much success, especially in the short-term, considering he doesn’t have much time to gauge whether certain parts are worth keeping.
“Just before the sprint we were trying way too many things, [going from] one bike to another and I was going to qualifying without any reference,” he said (via Autosport).
“With one bike I had to ride in one way, with the other one in another way. So I was completely lost.
“We are already struggling much more than usual, but I was really lost.
“I said I want to have a base that I know more or less and in the sprint it was much better. Still not very good but at least we finished not super far from Jack [Miller].”
Quartararo reveals that the number of parts brought in for race weekends have different characteristics, which contrast heavily which further complicates assessments of the bike.
The 25-year-old tried multiple of different bikes throughout the British Grand Prix, which all had different characteristics and strengths, which left Quartararo feeling like the weekend’s work was counterproductive.
He made comparisons to this experience to one of a test rider, stating that number of changes are that frequent that he isn’t “using the same bike for two days in a row.”
“It’s not too many new items, it’s too many different bikes in every single run,” he explained. “I do four laps, change of bike, [another] four laps, change of bike.
“[We do] time attack, but with which bike? So it’s complicated.
“Two years ago we had the same bike [all year]. Even last year at the end of the season we knew the bike was not the same, but we kept our base and it’s me putting the bike to the extreme limit.
“Right now, we can’t really do it because I have no idea where the limit of the bike is.
“It’s too much but you know sometimes you expect things to be better and not to be worse,” he said. “Or say sometimes we have new items and we expect them to be much better.
“Sometimes the one that you expect the most [from] is the one that doesn’t really bring some positives.
“Right now, I think I was more like a test rider than [a race] rider during the last races.
“At the moment I prefer to also focus a little bit more on trying to be as fast as possible because it has been a long time that I’m not using the same bike for two days in a row.”
