2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo has said Yamaha’s latest step in performance is down to an electronics tweak that allows the riders to have more input on the throttle.
Last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix saw Quartararo and team-mate Alex Rins both qualify inside the top 10 for the first time in a difficult 2024 campaign. Quartararo finished sixth in the race on Sunday, concluding a series of flyaway races that was positive apart from the marque’s home race in Japan.
Both Quartararo and Rins highlighted the progress made on the electronics side.
“I am much more the traction control now,” joked Quartararo after qualifying on Saturday. “We have made some big changes on the electronics.”
Asked if it was like riding an old 500cc grand prix bike, the Frenchman said: “Not exactly, but basically it’s a little bit like that.
“I have to control [it] much more and it’s much more difficult for me to ride the bike but we have more performance and this is what we are looking for.
“It’s much more difficult to use the throttle and have the best performance but I think we have made a good step in only a few days.”
Rins added similar sentiments following his best weekend of the season in terms of points, thanks to the eight he picked up for eighth place on Sunday.
“I have the bike a little bit more in my hand, which is so important for me. I got used to riding like this on the Suzuki – to control the spin a bit more, picking up the bike when it’s spinning…so it was quite nice.”
Yamaha, which benefits from concessions designed to help it rediscover the winning performance it has lost over the past two seasons, also brought a new engine to Malaysia.
Quartararo was unable to race with it after his broke in practice, and also had to race the spare bike in the grand prix after being caught in the first-corner incident. Rins, however, was able to use the new motor.
“Regarding the power and the top speed, it’s more or less the same,” said Rins. “But it works a little better for the electronics.”
“[On Saturday] morning we tested the strategy on the electronics that we tested with this engine in Misano. And the good feeling came back again.”
Quartararo summed up the Asia-Pacific leg of the season as a positive one in terms of progress.
“We can take positives from all the [flyaway] circuits. Japan was one of the weakest, but in Australia the pace was great, also in Mandalika. In Thailand we were fast in the wet and the dry.
“Here we were fast also. So we can be happy about this end to the season and hopefully we can now see the difference to where we were at Barcelona in the summer.”
He added that he looked forward to the post-season test that has been rescheduled at Barcelona instead of Valencia, considering the room for improvement Yamaha has there.
“Barcelona is a great choice [for the test]. It’s been a really tough track for us in the last two years. The grip is super low and that’s been our weakest point. The test there will be quite nice for us.”
