Sepang, February 4, 2022. – Yamaha officially presented this Friday the team with which it intends to defend the MotoGP title for the first time since the days of Valentino Rossi (2008 and 2009).
To achieve this, the Japanese team has the champion, and a motorcycle, the M1, which in its new version will not undergo a radical transformation, but rather will be refined. The first aspect that must take a step forward is power, and this is where, supposedly, the Iwata manufacturer’s engineers have worked hardest.
In a two-way staging, virtual and ‘in situ’, from Sepang, the tuning fork brand showed a prototype that is aesthetically practically identical to last year’s – in fact, the bikes on which both Quartararo and Morbidelli posed they were the 2021 models–.
Waiting for them to take to the track this Saturday, the Devil seemed relaxed, as almost always, no matter how hard he tries to get on the same plane as the rest of the riders on the grid.
The first aspect to not face this season in a different way is to give up wearing the #1 number that would correspond to him as champion. Instead, the Frenchman has chosen to incorporate a small star on the rear side of the helmet that he will wear during winter testing.
“I don’t want number 1s. I prefer to do as in football – many teams add stars for each major tournament they win. Last year is already behind us, and a completely new one begins,” agreed Quartararo, who has been in Malaysia for two days. , acclimatizing to the suffocating heat of the place.
For the Nice rider, these tests will be transcendental, given that the tests in Mandalika will have to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is a completely new circuit. In any case, his predisposition is the same as it was at this point in the previous exercise, in which he faced the challenge before him without starting as the favourite.
“I approach this World Cup the same as last year. From the outset, I did not set the title as my goal. The first goal is to achieve podiums and victories; that is what will lead us to the title,” insisted Quartararo, who, in fact, claimed to be much more relaxed for having taken a weight off him.
“I don’t see why the champion has to have more pressure to be a champion; in fact I have less than in 2021 because I have already achieved a goal that I had,” the Yamaha riveted.
