Fabio Quartararo is hopeful that a new fairing brought by Yamaha to Silverstone could help improve the acceleration of its M1 MotoGP challenger going forward.
The factory Yamaha racer enjoyed a strong comeback from the very back of the field in Sunday’s British Grand Prix to rise as high as seventh, before a tangle with VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini at The Loop with just a couple laps remaining forced him to pit for his spare M1 – relegating him to a final finishing position of 15th.
The Frenchman explained post-race that he and Yamaha had turned his bike upside down to try and find some much needed pace having struggled throughout Friday’s dry practice outings as well as in the wet on Saturday, Quartararo conceding that the new fairing brought by the Japanese manufacturer was an “interesting” addition.
While he feels his ability to take more risk following his disastrous qualifying was one of the main reasons for his rise through the field, Quartararo feels the fairing could help with reducing the wheelie effect on corner exit – and aiding acceleration as a result – and is keen to run it in the more traction-limited Red Bull Ring next weekend to see if it can provide gains in the upcoming races.
“We tried a new fairing, a different rear shock, a different swing arm that we had already tested and also a different setting on the rear – it was a bike I’d basically never tested but I felt we had to give it a try,” explained Quartararo.
“I wanted to see how the fairing affected the handling, and on this track it was interesting to see because there are many changes of direction.
“We’re not sure about the wheelie because there are not enough acceleration zones – Austria will be good to see this – but coming from 22nd to seventh was great.
“The fairing we’ll keep because that is something interesting because the handling wasn’t too bad and hopefully the downforce will be better so we can use more acceleration, so we’ll probably go with the standard bike with the new fairing for the Red Bull Ring.
“We tried three fairings during pre-season and they were all worse, but this one seems as good if not better.”
The 2021 MotoGP world champion added that the fact he has to “try many things” in unusual places in order to pass motorcycles with more power was the main reason for his clash with Marini, Quartararo feeling that he could have fought for a top six position had he been able to use the full potential of his speed across the encounter.
“It was not even a mistake (tangle with Marini) as when you’re struggling that much to overtake a rider you have to be on the limit and try many things (to pass), and unfortunately the touch happened and I lost the fairing,” continued Quartararo.
“I don’t think so (pace for top five), I think they ended up pretty close but I think considering the starting position I could have been maybe between (Jorge) Martin and the top guys.
“The issue for me is when the track is really low on the grip we are struggling so much and when we see Aleix’s (Espargaro) best lap of 2:02 and last year was almost a second faster, and we are losing so much in the lower grip conditions so I had no opportunity to fight with the top (five) guys.”
Keyword: Quartararo: New Yamaha fairing cause for optimism