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Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo admits he's not enjoying his 2023 MotoGP season as he continues to struggle with the bike.
The French rider won the title in 2021 and finished second in the championship last season. This year, however, has been a disaster. From a consistent frontrunner at one time with the bike, Fabio has been relegated to being a rider who continues to fight to even make it into the top 10 these days.
All of this has been a result of Yamaha's reluctance to build a bike with a better engine that is strong enough to compete and overtake other bikes.
Fabio Quartararo admitted that the bike does have the pace to compete but the not-so-strong engine means that it becomes too difficult to pull off overtakes. He said (via Crash.net):
“I’m not enjoying. I’m giving my 100% but when you think that last year I finished P5 [here], two years ago I fought for victory with Pecco. And now, we are that far [+15s]? It’s difficult. But I can be happy about my pace today because my pace was good.”
Fabio Quartararo did reveal that this was something he had been asking for since 2020 but Yamaha did not want to risk it and said:
“I asked since 2020 and 2021 for changes on the bike. But I guess for the Japanese mentality when your bike is P1, you don’t want to take any risks. When you are second last year, fighting for the championship, they don’t want to take so much risk."
He added:
"So finishing in this kind of position [now] and seeing Yamaha is last in the constructors – maybe it will change a little bit. But of course, we have to make big changes and I think we are many years in delay.”
Fabio Quartararo on why Yamaha is struggling at every track
Fabio revealed that even when the bike is great and has the pace to be competitive, if one cannot overtake it's tough to much in the race. Talking about the race and how it was once again the same problem at the 2023 San Marino MotoGP, he said:
“Even when I won the championship, I said, ‘We cannot win anymore with this bike.’ And last year, we finished second, we didn’t win. But this year is even worse. When you’re much faster than the guys in front of you, you have to overtake. This is what we are struggling with, in every single track it’s the same. Especially here was even worse.”
Fabio Quartararo will be working with Yamaha as he tries to get things back on track as he continues to have trust in the Japanese marque.
