Opportunity partially exploited
After the disappointing Spanish Grand Prix, with no points scored in either the Sprint race or Sunday’s main event, the Pramac team returned to the track to carry out tests in Jerez de la Frontera. At a particularly delicate moment for the team, as well as for Yamaha in general, the session was useful for evaluating all the problems encountered in this first phase of the championship, as well as the current package with various components and configurations.
Read more Quartararo: “We tested many things: chassis, swingarm, electronics and aerodynamics”
In all of this, Jack Miller provided more detailed feedback than his teammate, Toprak Razgatlioglu, who is in his first year in MotoGP and still adapting to the characteristics of the premier class bikes after his Superbike experience: “We had a lot of items to test, and it’s a shame about the small crash because it cost us about an hour of track time – he explained – it wasn’t anything serious, just a mistake, but at this stage every lap is important. We worked on several things, especially on the electronics, an area where I still need to improve my understanding and where we also need to make progress with the bike. I focused a lot on this to provide as much feedback as possible to the engineers. Now they have a lot of data from me and the other Yamaha riders, so I’m sure they’ll be very busy analyzing everything before Le Mans and coming back with new ideas to test. Days like this are also very important for me personally. On tracks like Jerez, I naturally tend to ride like I did in Superbike – it comes automatically – but this is something I need to change. Step by step, I’m adapting more and more to the MotoGP style.”
Miller‘s test day was decidedly more positive, despite his 17th place in the combined timesheets: “We had a lot to do and tried to tick off as many items as possible. There were new parts and solutions to test, but we also focused on reviewing some of the issues encountered during the weekend and, most importantly, confirming what was working. It was helpful to revisit some areas in a calmer environment and ensure we were heading in the right direction, without the pressure of a race weekend. This type of validation is as important as trying new things. I’m quite happy with the basic chassis setup at the moment, but at this stage of development even small changes can have a big impact and sometimes make you take a step backward. We know what we need to do: it’s about staying focused, working on our priorities, and continuing to build to achieve a higher level of competitiveness for the bike, for the team, and for us as riders.”
