Yamaha will receive updates later this year, with a new engine expected to have higher top speed arriving for Fabio Quartararo, one of the aspects that has been missing from the M1, among others. The expectation is for the Thai GP to be in Q2 directly.
The Frenchman thus made his preview of the GP, leaving some of the objectives in sight from the start: ‘I have good memories, it’s a track that’s not too bad for us especially in terms of lap time, and so the goal is to be in Q2 right from Friday’.
Regarding the new tire that Michelin will bring, for the rider that ends up being irrelevant, in the sense that it will not bring a big improvement, although for others it may have a different impact: ‘A different tire for us I think it won’t make a big difference but for others it may mean they have less potential and that, I think, will be important. We know we lack grip and especially acceleration and top speed on this track, but there are other things we can manage to try and get back’.
With three rounds to go, Quartararo also said that by the end of the year there will be news: ‘[The engine] is what I like the most this year but it’s also the slowest. Unfortunately we lack [being better] in many areas and we will have before the end of the year one more specification with more top speed and that will be super important we are losing a lot of performance on the straight, which at this stage is very easy to do’.
