Yamaha MotoGP electronics update beings “more performance” - Fabio Quartararo

The development of Yamaha’s MotoGP bike continues this weekend in Malaysia, and both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins were enthused by new electronics updates.

Quartararo, who reverted to the standard M1 engine for Saturday after trying a new specification on Friday, explained that the new electronics package gives much more control of the throttle to the rider.

“Basically, we have made some big changes on the electronics,” Quartararo said.

“Always when I talk to Max [Bartolini] he says that the electronics is something that we are really far away.

“So, I wanted to make a big change from this weekend, and if it was working — it’s working perfect — but even if it was a disaster I wanted to try because [...] I think they don’t want to make too many steps because electronics especially is quite critical, also quite easy to make a high-side.

“I have to control much more [the throttle], it’s much more difficult for me to ride the bike, but we have more performance and this is what we are looking for.”

Although he feels there is more performance with the new electronics, Quartararo said the lack of grip the Yamaha has compared to other bikes, particularly the Ducati, makes it difficult to ride.

“I have to take care much more— I’m much more the traction control,” he said. “When we compare to the Ducati, for me it’s much more difficult to ride because we don’t have the grip enough to have the full control on the throttle.

“Our bike is really moving and shaking, so it’s more difficult to really use the throttle as TC [traction control] and to have the best performance, but I think that we’ve made a good step.”

Quartararo also explained that the reason the update came now is because of Yamaha’s progress in other areas.

“It was possible [to bring the update before], but we had much more difficulties in other things,” he said.

“Right now, I think we have the possibility to analyse a bit better what the others were doing, and also from behind I could see more things, so I think that was great to do, especially here because there are many corners where we can feel it.”

Quartararo’s factory Yamaha teammate, Alex Rins, also benefitted from new electronics, although unlike Quartararo he used the new-specification engine in the Sprint.

“It was a really positive day,” Rins concluded, “from the morning that we test the strategy on electronics that we test with this engine in Misano, so the good feeling came back.

“[I have] A little bit more the bike in my hand, this for me is so important because I get used to riding like this on the Suzuki, and on every bike I went — Honda, Yamaha — I asked to have the bike in my hand, to control more the spin, picking up the bike when it’s spinning.

“So, it was quite nice, and also it helps on the engine brake side: looks like the rear tyre is more in contact with the [asphalt] and it helps a bit to stop the bike.”

On the new engine, Rins said there was not much advantage in terms of top end power compared to previous specifications.

“Regarding the power on the top speed, it has more or less the same,” Rins said, comparing the new engine with older specifications.

“With the big muffler, we were able to find more power, around one or two horsepower more, but we are using since this morning the small one, as we tested in Misano — it’s working a little bit better for the electronics.”