Yamaha Emphasizes That Change Cannot Be Quick

RiderTua.com – Even though it has acquired two Ducati engineers, Max Bartolini and Marco Nicotra, the fact is that Yamaha is still stumbling in the season-opening race in Qatar. Yamaha’s optimism in the pre-season test suddenly vanished, because Fabio Quartararo only finished 11th while Alex Rins was 16th at the Lusail Doha circuit.

For this reason, Yamaha does not want to have high expectations for the second series of the 2024 MotoGP season this weekend in Portimao. Previous race results show Yamaha’s position. “Obviously they have work to do, so it will be a busy week for the team,” said Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha team director.

Yamaha Emphasizes That Change Cannot Be Quick

Massimo Meregalli added that however, as said before, the changes they are trying to make are not quick changes and the significant progress they are seeking will take time and hard work. However, the team and Yamaha are very motivated to make improvements at every opportunity and fully support Fabio and Alex. This will be a worthwhile race weekend for Yamaha, as it is an opportunity to confirm the findings from the Qatar GP.

Meanwhile Quartararo said that the Qatar series was not an easy start to the season but now he knows what he has to work on. The Portimao circuit is very different to the Qatar circuit, so it will be interesting to see the comparison between bike handling and tire wear, he said.

“With the failure to score points in the sprint in Qatar, we are in the middle of the standings, so we will do our best to climb up the rankings this weekend. As always, I gave my best 100 percent and I know the team will too. So let’s see what can we do!” added the 25 year old rider.

On the other hand, Alex Rins revealed, “Even though the results were not good, our race in Qatar was very useful to extract some data and learn a lot for Portimao. It’s a shame that the last 6 laps we had to pay the price for trying too hard to recover positions because of our tires it’s finished.”

However, Rins is happy because they were able to go at the same speed as Quartararo, which means they are at the same level and they can both work together to improve in the same way, continued the former Suzuki rider.

Yamaha also has to fight to retain Fabio Quartararo after his contract expires at the end of 2024. Aprilia is reportedly eyeing his signature in 2025, so Yamaha knows they have to convince the French rider that they are on the right track to being competitive again. Since winning the 2021 MotoGP world title, Quartararo and Yamaha’s performance has declined.

Although there is little hope of a return to glory at Portimao this week, it is clear that the manufacturer from Iwata, Japan is using the second series of the season at Portimao as a data gathering exercise to develop their project. The main problems to be fixed were a lack of race pace, and an unexpected setback in Qatar.