If there is someone concerned on the grid, that someone is undoubtedly Fabio Quartararo. The start of the season was far from ideal for the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team and the former world champion did not hide his concern about the current state of his bike, even going so far as to say that, at this moment, the team is ‘further away than ever’ compared to their competitors.
The Frenchman was quite concerned at the end of the first GP of the season, and even more so after Sunday’s race, as quoted in Motorsport when asked if his Yamaha is at its worst level, he went even further: ‘Compared to the current level, I would say yes. We have improved, so it is difficult to say. But the level of our bike compared to the others, it is true that we are further away than ever’.
Nevertheless, Quartararo noted some improvements, but, at the current moment in the category, Yamaha is still far… even more so than in 2023, he added: ‘We are further away than last year. We have improved a bit, but they are still better and faster than last year’.
And this difference from the others does not only refer to Ducati, KTM, and Aprilia, he assured, looking at the struggling Honda as well: ‘So, the difference between all the European manufacturers and us is even greater – even for Honda I felt that on Sunday we were lacking something, and they are also struggling a lot. But I felt that we were even worse on Sunday’.
