Fabio Quartararo has admitted that frustration got the better of him when he made critical comments about Yamaha last month, and has now sought to tone down his remarks.
The MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix at the end of August was marked by an unexpected exchange of comments between Quartararo and Yamaha, the manufacturer he will leave at the end of the season after eight years to join Honda.
Quartararo said he doesn't want to help Yamaha for "personal reasons" at MotorLand Aragon, before clarifying that his frustration stemmed from the team's decision not to allow him to test next year's Pirelli tyres.
Yamaha's response came two days after the race, when team principal Paolo Pavesio said that Quartararo "lacks objectivity", effectively closing the door on his participation in the Pirelli test taking place on the Monday after the Austrian GP.
Asked ahead of the San Marino GP whether he regretted his comments, the Frenchman sought to qualify his answer.
"No, I think it's not about regret or not," he said. "With the frustration, we said things that maybe weren't right. We had a meeting last week together, everything was sorted out and everything is pretty normal."
Quartararo admitted that Yamaha's lack of competitiveness in recent years has made the situation difficult for him.
"You never get used to having some difficult moments," he said. "The frustration is always there when you are not achieving what you want.
"It doesn't matter if we know that our package at the moment is not at the level we want.
So you don't get used to it.
"I'm competitive, I want to fight. So if I really don't care, I'm not really enjoying and I don't want to race anymore.
"This is why sometimes I take care maybe too much. So my frustration is too high. But I need just to say the good words in the correct moment."
He added: "Maybe I need to throw [the frustration] in a different way. Maybe I need to throw it away when I'm alone in the motorhome, and talk to you guys [media] in a more gentle way."
In the past, Quartararo has admitted to turning to sports psychologists to help him deal with difficult periods.
"I've worked [with a sports psychologist] in the past. It can help because at one moment of my career I had to go.
"I started when I was in Moto2, so it was a long time ago. It was not really related to the bike, it was more related to myself. Lately, I've not been there for maybe a year and a half.
"But it's more related to the comments I've said. My feeling is good, just at the moment I'm not feeling good with the bike. And we try to sort things out, but it's nothing really related to psychologists at the moment.
"I knew when I had to go, you feel it when you have to go. I've been maybe six, seven times, maybe even more. But now I don't feel time to go because I don't feel to go there now."
