Rossi: Yamaha needs to respond like 2004

Having listened to Yamaha's apology after Saturday's miserable qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, Valentino Rossi called for the factory to deliver the kind of 'strong reaction' that resulted in what he considers the best ever M1, in 2005.

Rossi suffered his worst qualifying since Phillip Island 2016 when, having been outside the top ten after the rain-interrupted free practice, he failed to progress beyond Qualifying 1 and will start Sunday's race from 14th on the grid.

With Vinales only eleventh, it marked the first time both factory Yamaha riders have been outside the top ten in a dry qualifying since the start of 2008.

But this weekend's woes have not exactly been a surprise for Rossi, who has been highlighting the Yamaha's acceleration weakness for a complete calendar year. 

"In 2017 our opponents, Honda and Ducati, had a lot less performance than now but sincerely speaking I didn't feel good with the chassis, with the mechanical side of the bike," Rossi said.

"This year with the chassis, the weight distribution, I feel very good. But now in the electronic side [Honda and Ducati] made a huge step and is the step that unfortunately with Yamaha we are not able to do. 

"For me this is the key. They have to understand which way to improve, because for me the rest of the bike is good."

With an electronic solution yet to arrive, the slow corners and long straights of the Red Bull Ring have been especially punishing.

"I hope," replied Rossi, when asked if the public apology by Yamaha's MotoGP group leader/M1 project leader Kouji Tsuya means the acceleration problems are now being taken more seriously.

"Because it is a very long time that I speak with them about the same problem and after one year we have always the same problem. So I hope they give the maximum to fix it and now we have to see with time, in the next months, if we are able to improve."

'In 2004 Yamaha was a lot worse than now'

That improvement, Rossi believes, will require the kind of effort, financial resources and organisational shake-up not seen at Yamaha since the Italian's stunning debut season at the team, in 2004. 

"When I arrived a long, long time ago in 2004 Yamaha was a lot worse than now. But in one year they reacted very strongly," he explained.

"They put different organisation, they put more money, more people and in one year we were able to make the 2005 M1 that is for me the best M1 that I ride. So we have to try the same. 

"For me the situation [with acceleration] is very similar from August-September last year. More August than September. I feel always similar. 

"It's true that in some tracks we suffer less, but in some other tracks we suffer more, unfortunately. Six days ago [in Brno] I was on the front row and now I'm on the fifth row!"

Rossi, who went on to finish fourth in the Czech Republic, said Yamaha's Austrian misery is related to the level of 'stress' placed on the rear tyre on the exit of the corners.

"This happened in a critical track for the rear tyre. Because it looks like when you stress very much the rear tyre, the riding style of Zarco [sixth in qualifying] and also his size and weight, which is a lot less than mine and Maverick, helps very much. From the other side, also six days ago, Zarco was in trouble and now he's faster than us."

'I hoped to suffer a bit less than this'

The nine-time world champion, who took Yamaha's most recent MotoGP victory in June of last year, added:

"I knew that at this track we have to suffer this year, because maybe it's the worst track in the calendar [for us], but I expect and I hoped to suffer a bit less than this. 

"I was also unlucky because the only dry practice to go directly into Qualifying 2 was FP1 and unfortunately in FP1 I broke the bike [sprocket] after three laps. So I have to use the other bike that is quite different and I was not comfortable enough to stay in the top ten.

"In Qualifying 1 I suffered a lot with the soft rear tyre. The soft is very difficult to manage, even for two laps, because you feel a little bit better grip but the tyre is too soft and for our bike it is difficult to improve the lap time so I wasn't able to arrive in Qualifying 2 unfortunately.

"Now I will have to start from the fifth-row tomorrow and that is very difficult and critical, especially here because the first three or four braking are difficult for everybody and when you are in the pack you have to keep attention.

"But we have to work for tomorrow. We hope to have a dry race and we will try something else and we have to give the maximum to take some points for the championship."

Last year Rossi qualified seventh on the grid with a time of 1m 23.9s, compared with a 1m 24.3s this year. Honda's pole man Marc Marquez set a '22.2s this year and last, while Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were marginally quicker this year.

"The soft tyre is softer than last year and maybe it was not a bad idea for me to make like Dovizioso, that did the lap time with the medium. Because for me I can go faster with the medium," Rossi said.

Yamaha's current 20-race losing streak is the factory's worst since 1998, yet Rossi remains second in the world championship, 49 points from Marquez, with Vinales in fourth (-72 points).