“I’m struggling to ride the bike”: Fabio Quartararo laments Yamaha MotoGP grip issues

A lack of grip is leaving Fabio Quartararo “struggling to ride the bike” at the Hungarian MotoGP.

The French rider has been absent from the front of MotoGP races frequently in 2026 as Yamaha’s V4 continues to develop, and the Hungary Sprint was no different with Quartararo down in 17th at the finish.

Straight line speed is the common issue for Yamaha, but with the short straights at Balaton it is the YZR-M1’s lack of grip that is a more pressing matter this weekend.

“Especially without grip I'm struggling a lot to ride the bike,” Fabio Quartararo said after the Sprint in Hungary. 

“In general it's a factor that I have since I started racing in MotoGP, but I'm struggling without the grip. I'm doing a lot of mistakes, also the front feeling is not great, so just trying to make my best.”

The longer race on Sunday will likely mean that most riders choose the medium-compound rear tyre instead of the soft, but Quartararo doesn’t expect this to be of any benefit to him.

“It will not change anything,” the Monster Energy Yamaha rider said when asked about using the medium rear tyre in the long race.

He added: “We know that the grip for us is really, really bad and it doesn't matter if it's the soft or the medium, we will struggle, especially on Sunday even more.”

Quartararo had found improvements at the Jerez test and they brought better performance at the Le Mans and Catalunya races. Hungary, though, has been worse than Quartararo expected.

“I found some front feeling in Jerez test that was quite great in Le Mans and Barcelona,” he said.

“But to be honest, I didn't expect to suffer that much here about this topic, but we have to accept it.”