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What he expects from this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix and how the development of the V4 is progressing: these were the topics that Fabio Quartararo focused on this Thursday in Jerez. A round where the French rider arrives in the wake of the seventh place conquered in Qatar, his best finish in this first part of the season, and just a few days after the test carried out by the Yamaha test riders in Valencia. Where the first of the two V4-powered bikes on which the Iwata company is working for the near future took to the track.
A test on which he did not want to express any opinion, carefully avoiding providing feedback on the new Yamaha.
"I don't know what I can say about it, so I prefer not to say anything. This is not the first test that has been done with the V4 engine. But in the process we're in now, it's not about thinking about performance, it's about making sure everything works. They are doing a lot of testing and what I can say is they have only done a few laps in two days, not a full day of testing. I think it is too early to give feedback on the bike, which is why I don't want to talk about it: because maybe I say one thing and it turns out to be the opposite. The bike is running for the moment, so it's going," the Frenchman commented with a joke.
"Did I see the new bike? No. I was close to seeing it, but I didn't want to go to Milan before I left for the GP. Honestly, I'm not interested in seeing it," he admitted, "It can be pink or any other colour, all I want is for it to go fast. So, for the moment, I haven't even seen it in pictures. Do I know when I will ride it? Yes, but - no. If we want to be realistic, I think more or less all next year's bikes will be tested around August or September. So, I think that will be more or less the period when I will test it."
With all the testing scheduled by Yamaha in the coming months, the first contact between El Diablo and the Japanese V4 could come even sooner. But the Nice native doesn't think so.
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"At the moment we are still pushing hard on our current bike: the tests are focused on this year, to try to make the bike as fast as possible. We will be very busy on this bike between now and Assen: we will have an intense testing period ahead of us. Later the focus will be on the V4, but not now," he pointed out.
Would it make sense for the tuning-fork manufacturer to take part with the wild cards available for the new bike?
"I think a wild card is for testing and especially, in my opinion, for the future. I don't know what the plan is, whether they want to do a wild card even with the bike with the V4 or not. But it is always much more interesting to try something in a race weekend than in testing. Because in a test you are alone, or with 3 or 4 riders at most, while in a race you can compare yourself with everybody. I think it's very important, and although I don't know, I hope they will use the V4 in the wild cards," he replied.
For Quartararo, after all, the road to the future is already mapped out.
"I don't know where I will be in 2027, but for me the way is clearly the V4 as early as next year. We are riding completely different from the others. There are five manufacturers and four of them have the V4. If we were three and two or vice versa, maybe ... But seeing the way the others feel and influence us, it's clear that we have to choose the V4," he underlined, "For my future, it will be very important to see what next year's bike will be like. It will be about going fast, but also about being able to go fast in races and to fight with others. In the past we were very fast riding alone. I've never won a race by fighting, most of my victories I've achieved on my own, trying to go on the run. Let's say that in the battle we are the worst."
Speaking instead about his expectations for this weekend, Fabio added, "We always push, but I can't say how much we can do it. Last year was the worst race of the year for me, but I keep good memories of the past. We'll see. I have a good feeling with the bike, especially on the one lap. Therefore, this weekend, my goal is to be fast on the single lap, but also to try to maintain a good pace. We know the tire wear here is not bad, so hopefully we can be fast, qualify well and have some good races. But I don't set a specific position as my goal."
Although in the last round the M1 began to show the potential highlighted in Sepang, it is difficult for the Nice native to make predictions about its competitiveness.
"Honestly speaking, the performance we got in Sepang we got the best out of in Qatar. Where, in practice, circumstances made possible a front row that otherwise would clearly not have been possible for me to achieve. Why did we get onto the front row? Because the track had so much grip. We lapped on Friday and on Saturday the grip was even more, while on Sunday the grip started to decrease after the Moto2 race and we were not fast. It all depends on the track and not on our bike," he noted, "So, at least from my side, I try to change my vision a little bit and try to make sure that also for our bike it is a little bit like for the others, that whatever the condition of the track they don't have a big variation in grip. We will definitely try to maximize the potential and be as close as possible to the leaders."
