Quartararo 'worried': 'Not a Ducati track, but they finished 1-2-3'

New MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo echoed the concerns of former title winner Joan Mir at the fearsome pace shown by the Ducatis in the closing rounds of 2021.

Quartararo finished the final three rounds without a rostrum, his near-perfect run of front-row starts drying up to fully expose Yamaha's weakness in overtaking.

"To be honest it was that we did bad qualifying and we couldn’t overtake," Quartararo said after starting eighth and finishing fifth, in the wheeltracks of Mir's Suzuki.

But it was the 'massive step' taken by Ducati, which won four of the last six races (Honda's Marc Marquez the other two) and filled the podium at a Valencia track not obviously suited to the Desmosedici, that left the young Frenchman 'more worried' for next season.

"Everyone said this track was not a Ducati track, but they did 1-2-3 in qualifying and the race," Quartararo said. "They made a massive step, so I'm more worried about next year, but this [isn't] something I have too much on my mind right now.

"I need to leave it to Yamaha. They know what they have to do to improve for next year. Of course we are not in full confidence because they make a step, but we are the world champions of this year. So we need to enjoy it."

Quartararo has long made clear that Yamaha needs to make real top speed gains for 2022.

"I'm giving my maximum always and I think you can see it. But today we arrived to the limit of the bike," he explained. "To be honest it was tough to understand how much turning, drive and power they [Ducati] have.

"Because I was behind Jack and… I don’t know how many horsepower they have, but they have a lot. So at the end it's something that Yamaha needs to work on.

"I repeat it a lot to Yamaha but I think they know what they have to do. So that's it."

Quizzed on whether the message to Yamaha is clear enough, Quartararo was adamant:

"I'm not telling to somebody and Yamaha will hear from somebody. I'm telling straight to Yamaha," he said. "In Qatar I asked straight away for the holeshot device, they could do it quite fast.

"Now we ask for many things, with the 1-2-3 of what we really need to be competitive because right now we have a lot of strong points but also a lot of weak points.

"We need to make a step if we want to fight again - not fight again, fight a little bit more easy, because right now I feel even today we finished fifth I felt on the limit a lot.

"So let's see. I think today we made a great race because I was feeling really bad, and when you are feeling really bad but you make a top five I think it’s a great performance."

Valentino Rossi was the next best Yamaha rider, in tenth place and eight seconds behind Quartararo, whose factory team-mate Franco Morbidelli was eleventh as Ducati snatched the teams' title to add to the constructors' crown. 

Quartararo and Morbidelli will continue Yamaha's preparations for the 2022 season at this week's Jerez test.