Arriving at the summer break of the 2022 MotoGP season, Fabio Quartararo leads the world championship with 172 points and 21 ahead of his closest rival, Aleix Espargaró. However, after the first few races, things did not look so promising for the Yamaha.
At Portimao, the fifth race of the campaign, and with his first victory in 2022, Quartararo took the lead in the championship and hasn’t lost it since. “The beginning was difficult”, acknowledged Massimo Meregalli , director of Yamaha. “It’s also true that it was complicated because we were expecting something from Japan that we couldn’t bring.”
The Yamaha M1’s top speed deficit was frustrating and, in fact, was repeatedly the focus of criticism from the French rider, particularly earlier in the year. “I think at that moment we lost some motivation, but we made the decision to stop thinking about what we were not achieving and try to make the most of what we had,” said the director.
The first races of the season were full of ups and downs, he recalls. “We went to Qatar and the race didn’t go as expected (Quartararo finished ninth). It also took us a bit of time to understand the new aerodynamics.
“And then we went to Indonesia, where we got a very good result in the wet, circumstances where we are not normally very competitive,” added the Yamaha rider.
According to Meregalli , Fabio Quartararo ‘s turning point came at the weekend in Austin. “I think Fabio flipped the switch at COTA, when towards the end of the race he was able to fight with Marc Marquez, wheel to wheel, despite the big difference in top speed.”
After that battle, everything changed: “When he got to Portimao, I think he did it in a different way and there I think we started to maximize our package. On their side of the garage, they did a very good job preparing for the race and working very well. with the tires.
Since then, Quartararo has been very consistent, which meant that, after his zero in Assen, he maintained the leadership of the drivers’ championship. “He’s probably the only rider at the moment who has been able to exploit the strengths of our bike as much as possible, and now he has a strong rapport with the bike.”
“He is more mature than last year,” Meregalli assured, “because he is improving his lap times no matter where we go, and he is very determined. And when I say he is more mature, it is because he has been in difficult situations like in Argentina or COTA, and ended up disappointed in Qatar, but not in a negative way.”
“Since we came back to Europe, he has been very focused and fast, as shown by the recent results he has achieved on very fast tracks, where we did not expect him, and also at the Sachsenring, which has never been a great circuit for Yamaha ”, concluded.
