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This year, Valentino Rossi once again celebrated his birthday astride his M1. In Buriram expectations were high to see Yamaha in action after the Malaysia tests. It was a bitter-sweet day for the Doctor, once again dealing with electronics difficulties, as had already happened last season.
In fact, number 46 makes no bones about it.
“I am rather worried – Valentino began – since our technicians are struggling with the Magneti Marelli ECU. Unlike the fork or the engine, the nice thing about the electronics is that they are numbers. You can solve issues in a day, but it isn’t that easy.”
Valentino allows himself a half-smile, but then goes back to being serious straight away, analysing the situation clearly.
“I am able to ride the bike well, both going into corners and in braking, even better than last year – he explained – However, looking at the standings is hard because today I am behind three Ducatis, so if I want to battle for the podium, I need to take a step forward.”
The issue with the ECU makes him think of the gremlins of 2017.
“Unfortunately, I have the same disadvantage with the electronics as last year – he said, without mincing words – Ducati and Honda managed to figure something out that we still haven’t, so they have different acceleration than we do and consequently we are behind them.”
The nine-time world champion is well aware that a solution to the problem needs to be found as quickly as possible.
“When you have to do 26 laps in the race, trying to battle for the podium, this aspect becomes fundamental – he emphasised – so we need to continue our development efforts. There is no other solution.”
Of course, there was also a comment about his 39 years.
“For the last few seasons I have almost always celebrated my birthday in the saddle – he recalled – On one hand, I am happy because I have the chance to ride the M1, but on the other, it means that I have to work (joking).”
In the Yamaha camp, Maverick Viñales has a bitter taste in his mouth. His expectations of staying with the leaders went up in smoke quickly. At the end of Friday, number twenty-five was even outside the top ten, with almost a half a second gap behind the leader (+0.497).
“It was a difficult day – the Spaniard began – We focused on the settings, but there were no improvements compared to Sepang. Tomorrow we will need to move in a different direction, since the one we took today was completely wrong and we are far from the leaders.”
Maverick has very clear ideas about where to focus.
“We need to work on the electronics – he admitted – This is the area where we are struggling the most. The sensations are practically the same as in 2017, particularly in terms of going into turns, where it seems like we have gone back to a year ago.”
Finding the right way, however, is not a given:
“We will need to find something different – he concluded – It is not so easy to change the bike, because you might feel good with a setup and then be forced to change it, sacrificing it in favour of another.”
