Fabio Quartararo believes his Yamama MotoGP team is making progress following the Catalan Grand Prix, citing “we are seeing the light coming out of the tunnel”.
Quartararo’s remarks stem from him gaining eight positions from 17th place on the grid in last weekend’s race at the Spanish venue to come home in ninth place.
Yamaha delivered a brand new aero package in Barcelona, with the manufacturer having worked around the clock in between rounds to improve its competitiveness.
The 2021 champion has penned a two-term contract extension with the team and is convinced that he is seeing the Japanese marque now making gradual inroads.
“When you are doing the small steps, you want to have a bigger one as soon as possible,” he said.
“But to be honest, this one and a half year, we have been without making any progress and to feel that we are seeing the light coming out of the tunnel, it’s great.
“So hopefully we can make some good steps pretty soon.”
When Autosport asked about the new update characteristics and whether it helped the bike, he replied: “For me, it helps to turn, to go a little bit faster into the corners. It’s difficult to say if it’s a massive step or not because the aero is not something that you say, ‘wow, it’s much better’.
“This aero, you have to get used [to it] and in the future, it will be a really good step, and we are looking to make another step like this one. So hopefully we can do it.”
Quartararo admitted the new concession system allows Yamaha to have unlimited testing time, giving him and team-mate Alex Rins the chance to adapt to new parts.
“For me [with] the aerodynamics you get used much more when you make more laps,” he said.
“I learn [about] the aerodynamics even more during the [whole] weekend that I use because I can understand where the strong points of this aero are, and in five laps you cannot really understand [that]. This is the benefit of having the concessions.
“After Mugello, we go to Valencia [for] two days of test. It’s really busy but it’s really worth it because Yamaha has never worked like that in the past, has never had that much idea[s].
“And we are not bringing things to bring. We clearly speak with the team that I don’t want to test another chassis or another swingarm. We tested 100s of them already.
“We know where the problem is coming [from], so now they are really focussed on that and they are working in a clever way. “
