Now is not the time to look too much at outright performance, but seeing the Yamaha V4 consistently last in both the time and top speed standings at Sepang is not the best calling card. Nothing to worry about, because the reasons are clear, but Augusto Fernandez, in this his second wild card after Misano, hoped the road would be slightly more downhill. The engineers decided to take power off the engine so that they would not have reliability problems and would be able to collect as much data as possible. Perhaps, however, they were too cautious.
"Yesterday I said it would be difficult because of the reduction of engine power because you need it on this track. I expected it would be complicated, but not like this, I was too optimistic, I feel the lack of power a lot," Fernandez lamented.
Is that the biggest limitation?
"I don't feel bad on the bike, but I lose so much in every acceleration, not only in top speed. It's not that the engine doesn't have power, but they were very cautious. It's a bit difficult for me when I'm on the straights. I have to focus on the feeling and forget about the times a little bit, and it's not easy."
Is increasing power out of the question?
"They say now is not the time, although for me we should give full power to understand the true character of the engine. I also know that we don't have much time, so we have to keep working."
What are the feelings on the bike?
"They are different from Misano and more similar to the tests at Barcelona and Brno. We also had some problems with the two bikes in FP1, both weren't working well, and then we had a wrong strategy in the afternoon, I could only use one new tyre for the time attack. It was a bit of a tricky day and I can improve in my riding as well. For the rest of the weekend I will focus on myself, my feeling and see what is possible. Today was tough."
Did you restart from the setup in Misano?
"No, because the sensations are completely different, there is a different geometry from Misano and it was like starting from scratch again. Also because when you change the geometry, the electronics work completely differently. We are trying to find with the numbers a base, but we don't have it yet."
What are the biggest differences from your first wild card?
"It's a completely different track. Misano has so much grip, the tyres don't drop and you can push every lap like you were in qualifying, whereas Sepang today had no grip and has a very different layout. Also, when you have a base, you make changes in millimeters, while we are now working on centimeters and that also makes it difficult for me to find the rhythm."
Quartararo lamented that you haven't tested since the San Marino GP.
"I would like to ride more too, also because it's hard to come into a race weekend without having the pace. I'm certainly not riding at my best, maybe I'll be able to tomorrow, but we'll have to improve the test program for next year."