With six Ducati in the top ten for the Italian Grand Prix free practice day, Fabio Quartararo believes it’s not “impossible” to take on the Italian brand on Sunday, but reckons it’s unlikely he’ll be able to fight his riders based on in Friday’s results.
In the morning session, the Frenchman was 0.7 seconds behind the leader. However, Quartararo did not have very good feelings on a day that classified him ninth.
“I’m just as unhappy with my pace today as I was with my fastest lap. I don’t know why, but the feeling is very different from last year. Our bike is very similar [to the 2021], but I haven’t done the same. Tomorrow we will test exactly the set-up from last year,” said Quartararo.
“Nothing is impossible, but right now it’s really very difficult [to overtake the Ducati]. In order to keep up with your pace, we have to do everything perfectly, like last year. At the moment, however, it’s the opposite,” he added. .
Ahead of the weekend, the Yamaha rider admitted that the next two rounds at Mugello and Barcelona were going to be tough on his bike due to the power demands on these tracks.
For this reason, Yamaha has a new fairing this weekend. However, the prototype has changed slightly in aerodynamic terms, but it does not seem to be the breakthrough.
“We have a slightly better top speed with it. But out of the corners the bike has a greater tendency to do wheelies.”
Ahead of Friday’s race, RNF Racing announced that it would part ways with Yamaha at the end of 2022 and become Aprilia’s satellite team. However, Quartararo believes this will have little impact on Yamaha, as “since the start of the season, we haven’t verified any data from the team.”
