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Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo admits he is not “super confident” about the 2022 MotoGP season after finishing ninth in the Qatar Grand Prix.
The 2021 MotoGP champion had been blunt in his comments about the YZR-M1 during pre-season, particularly its ongoing horsepower deficit relative to other bikes in the field.
He would be consigned to Qualifying 1 at the Lusail International Circuit and would not have advanced from that session if Johann Zarco did not have a lap time cancelled due to the presence of a yellow flag.
Quartararo ultimately qualified 11th, one position up on Monster Energy Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli, who went on to finish 11th.
It was a start contrast to what played out in the Qatar and Doha Grands Prix when Lusail hosted the opening two races of the 2021 campaign, one of which was won by Quartararo and the other by his team-mate of the day, Maverick Viñales.
“Knowing that last year [Yamaha] won both races, and now we finish basically behind, quite far back, of course I’m worried,” said the Frenchman.
“We made a fourth row start, going through Qualifying 1, so I would say I cannot be super confident [for the season ahead].
“But as I always say, I’m not an engineer. My job is to be 100 percent prepared and focused for every race and I give my 100 percent in every condition, whether I’m fighting for victory, P5, P9, P15.”
Generally speaking, Yamaha relies on qualifying at or near the very front of the field because of the asymmetry of ease of passing with straight-line speed versus corner speed.
However, getting stuck in the pack also creates other problems, and Quartararo says the team was surprised with just how much his front tyre pressure was affected in the first race of the year.
“I made a great start and then from second lap we already had tyre pressure that goes super high,” he explained.
“Basically, it’s a bit strange that it was already from the second lap and then we just dropped.
“The team calculate, let’s say, that when you are in the slipstream the tyres will go up from these numbers.
“But from the second lap, we were already much higher than expected until Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] and [Jorge] Martin crashed in front of me.
“I was still not really in the slipstream; I think I was close to one second behind, but my front tyre was a disaster.
“Not the tyre itself, but the pressure was too high and we need to understand why.”
The other 2022 YZR-M1 in the field finished 14th in the hands of Andrea Dovizioso, who has not long joined the Yamaha fold after missing the majority of the 2021 season following his split from Ducati.
Dovizioso’s WithU RNF team-mate Darryn Binder, riding an older bike, was 16th in his debut race after battling with fellow rookie Remy Gardner.
Round 2 will be held at Indonesia’s new Mandalika circuit on March 18-20.
