Last Started and last Came, Yamaha wildcard Remy Gardner 's Motegi weekend was definitely not one of the brightest, aided by a lack of confidence with the medium tire that didn't allow him to push especially on the final lap.
"I had tried it on Friday and it was pretty good, but not great. This morning I tried with the soft and if I hadn't made a mistake on the descents I would have finished 15th, so that would have been great. On the final run it was on the limit, so I would have done well to put the soft since Nakagami in the last laps was faster than the others. Maybe that was the best option. Otherwise it was a long GP where I would have liked to battle more, but it was a difficult weekend for all the Yamaha riders," he commented.
Making a comparison between the KTM engine he was used to in his pre-SBK run and that of the M1, the son of art said, "The Austrian one was more linear although quite aggressive, I don't know if it's the electronics, but in general it was easier for me to handle. With this one it's more complicated and the 'electronics is also a critical point. Do you work differently in that respect? No I don't think so. Overall the grip has improved and the rideability, however at the level of electronics it does not give good feeling when you go on the throttle."
Turning to his own main effort in the factory derivatives, he said, "We come from two complex rounds and we have to find what we are missing. The others have improved a lot. I'm not saying we're slower because I'm going 10 seconds faster than 2023, but that's not translating into results. We need to take a step forward. At Estoril I have never gone and it will be interesting. It would be nice to finish well in Jerez."
Then a annotation on his winter: "In November the guys from the factory team will do a test, I won't because I have to have back surgery. Last year I crashed in Misano and even though I was in pain I held out, then I hurt myself on the wakeboard, while doing a back-flip I had injections to buffer the problem. I would have liked to have had surgery in the break after Assen, however I preferred to postpone it so I wouldn't miss any races. Nothing major, however, it will take a month to recover."
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