MotoGP Portimao: Quartararo chasing ‘evolution, same as last year’

Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was putting on a brave face as preparations concluded for the inaugural MotoGP weekend of 2023.

While the Frenchman’s request for an increase in top speed may finally have been heard by the Japanese manufacturer, improvements to his YZR-M1 weren’t quite as forthcoming as the 2021 champion would have liked.

“Engine is the thing that I’ve asked, we make a step forward,” Quartararo said on Thursday from the MotoGP pre-event press conference. “Still not enough, I think if they keep going they can improve it but we are still far away from what we have to have in the bike.

“Was a lot of new items but at the end, on the last day we went back to all the basics and last year’s setup,” he said of ‘progress’ made during the final test at the algarve International Circuit. “We needed this time to figure out how is the new items working, we couldn’t figure it out so we went back to last year’s set up and went immediately better.

“I don’t know if it’s good or not because at the end, we are more or less in the same place as last year. A little bit better of course because you have more top speed but we have to work to try to improve.

“Actually, during the last day of test, I’ve been able to make a great lap - two laps in a row with the same lap times,” the Yamaha rider confirmed of his one lap pace. “We are still missing compared to Ducati because the last day was all of the Ducatis in the top eight, so of course we are missing. I think everybody’s on the limit and is all about details but we have to make steps during the year. This is I think the weak point that we had also the previous years, that as soon as we start the season we have no evolution to the end.

“This year, if we’re going to be