Quartararo's first public outing on the M1 V4 attracted a lot of interest, as was only to be expected. However, when Fabio appeared before the press, the expression on his face said more than a thousand words. Expectations were high, but a handful of sentences were enough to cool tempers: "the sensations are very similar to those with the inline-4 engine. Of course we have a lot of work to do, but the sensations are still not optimal. I have nothing more to add," he sentenced.
Isn't the new bike better than the current one?
"At the moment it's worse. In Barcelona we felt some differences that for me was in a better way, but here we haven't found it yet. At the moment I don't see any improvement in the area we really need to make but, like the team said, there is still a margin, theoretically."
Is adapting your riding style to the V4 difficult?
"No problem, I can adapt quickly. I don't think that the V4 engine will resolve all our problems because we still find the same problems in Barcelona and here. There it was a bit better, but the track is really smooth, there are not so many corners straight away like here, and the bike is super aggressive."
Does the front need to be fixed?
"There are this and other problems to solve, like electronics, setting and other things to fix. The list is long."
How much room for improvement is there?
"There is potential, but I will not answer about the potential."
Did you compare yourself with Miller and Fernandez?
"Our comments are the same, but that doesn't mean they are positive."
Augusto, in the race, complained of vibration on corner entry.
"It's not really a matter of front feeling, it's a matter of turning. The feeling of the inline-4 is really good. It is the strongest point of our bike, but it's the only one we have. This one is maybe a bit worse right now, but we don't find any other really r really positive aspects. This is what we have to try to figure out what is possible."