Fabio Quartararo explains cause of “strange day” at Buriram MotoGP test

After a promising showing at last week’s Sepang test, Fabio Quartararo began this week’s Buriram MotoGP test with a day he described as “strange”.

The unusualness of the day was derived from the feeling Quartararo had on the front end of his Yamaha, something he put down to the tyres.

“Today was a really strange day for us,” the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider said following the opening day of the Buriram test, “especially because it’s one of the first times of my career that I didn’t like any tyres on the front.

“So, I was struggling a lot today to ride and to be fast.

“So, let’s see tomorrow if the track improves and I can really ride like I want; because today we tried many things but also I was not riding well.

“So, hopefully tomorrow we can find a tyre or a setting with this tyre that can adapt to us.”

The French rider added that he and Yamaha had not identified what was causing his lack of front end confidence, but reinforced his belief that it’s about the tyres rather than the YZR-M1.

“Always when there is two tyres, it happens that you don’t like one and you like the other,” he said.

“But to not like both of them it’s the first time that it happens to me. I don’t know why, hopefully tomorrow it will change.”

Fabio Quartararo 13th at Buriram test

His uncomfortability on the front had led to an appearance of greater braking stability, Quartararo explained.

“The bike is a little bit more stable, but especially because I’m not able to brake super-hard with the front,” he said.

“So, of course the bike is more stable; last year I could put the bike much more on the limit, so I think tomorrow the bike will shake again because I will try to push the limit [in case] the same thing happens with the tyres on the race.

“So, tomorrow morning we will really try to put the bike under pressure”

Quartararo was at least able to confirm that Yamaha has made progress in a straight line after riding behind Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez.

“I spent one lap behind Alex Marquez, but it’s difficult to see if he has an 18-lap-old tyre and you have a five-lap-old tyre, so it’s really difficult to compare, but I think on the straight we improve quite a lot,” he said.

Finally, the 2021 World Champion said that Yamaha’s aerodynamic and engine package is now “quite fixed,” and that the majority of his day was spent trying new electronics strategies.

For Thursday, the final day of testing of the 2025 MotoGP preseason, Quartararo’s focus was on launch modes, as he felt there was room to improve after the practice start session between the morning and afternoon running on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow we will try to make a bit more different strategies on the electronics for the start and hopefully we can improve a bit,” he said.

“Today I think we made some different things that could have worked but at least for us it doesn’t work.”