Yamaha Racing, like RKS, pays a lot of attention to the IRTA MotoGP tests in Misano. These tests are used to lay the foundations for success in the 2023 championship. Fabio Quartararo’s pleas have finally been heard: he and Morbidelli received a new YZR-M1 engine today, which can become the base one. First impressions are purely positive!
Quartararo explored the evolutionary M1 slowly and for his own pleasure: in the first half of the day he used an old engine, but a new chassis and climbed into the TOP 3 according to Live Timing, and in the second (evening) session he topped the table for a long time when the team rolled out a motorcycle with a new engine. He saw obvious progress compared to the prototype of the 2022 generation and the engine, which could not allow him to fight last Sunday for more than 5th place in the San Marino Grand Prix.
“We devoted the morning to work with the new chassis and tried all possible combinations of rubber to compare the date with last weekend. There are some advantages, but it is difficult to judge how serious they are. For example, when I went out on an old bike for comparison, I managed to go faster. But then I went back to the new and… I definitely liked it more, overall. Before the end of the season, we will have the opportunity to test it 1-2 more times and make a decision,” Fabio began his report.
Finally, the long-awaited test of the new engine: “Today we know that Yamaha should not only be criticized but also praised! Yes, the new engine provides a great move, we tested it today and compared it… I’m happy with him. We have enough time before the first race of 2023 in Porto to put an end to the acceleration issue. But today we got better speed indicators than on Sunday.”
The gap in top speed from Ducati was reduced to several km/h: the peak speed of the Quarararo was 292.6 km/h, 3.2 km/h less than that of Johann Zarco.
Together with Franco Morbidelli, Quartararo is now going to focus on testing a new aerodynamic body kit. Franco has been working with him since the morning, Quarararo only once went out on a bike with new winglets: “We still have a planned aerodynamics test with modified winglets, it will be interesting.”