The Fabio Quartararo Misano MotoGP problem that bodes ill for Yamaha’s Austria GP
Fabio Quartararo was hampered by fuel problems at the Misano MotoGP that he was not anticipating.
The Misano MotoGP saw Fabio Quartararo bogged down by fuel problems, he says, and ones that he was not expecting.
Monster Energy Yamaha’s Quartararo finished 10th in the San Marino MotoGP, coming from 13th on the grid, but he was battling a lack of fuel from the start.
“I would say that I was not so far from P6 I think,” Fabio Quartararo said after the Misano race.
“But we had many difficulties with the fuel during this race, I don't know why. In the dashboard I had the lights and the lights were completely crazy, so I was a bit lost.”
Quartararo added that for much of the race the bike was telling him he did not have enough fuel to reach the finish.
“We have to play because we can't use all the power we have, and at the end I don't know why that today we struggled a lot,” he said.
“It was a lot in the red, so it means not good. But straight from the beginning, so I was using less power than what we have.
“I was struggling and also in the straights I was super-slow.”
Despite the high consumption, Quartararo was able to set a decent pace, he felt.
“I have three maps on the bike, so it's one, two, three,” he explained. “[Number] one is the one that supposedly the bike goes faster, the two is in the middle and the three is the less rich.
“So I make most of the race with the map three, that I was a bit under-potential, and even like that I make 1m31.7s, 1m31.8s, so I was not super, super-bad.”
Quartararo was asked if by using the leaner power map he was able to make the fuel light go off.
“No, it stays,” he responded. “So it stays and then basically [if the light is] red you don't finish the race.
“So basically I was without fuel just going into the pit lane.”
Misano is a reasonably high consumption track, although in the post-race press conference all three riders – Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, and Pedro Acosta – said they had no problems with fuel consumption during the race.
The next race is at the Red Bull Ring, perhaps the highest-consumption track on the calendar thanks to its stop-start layout, which Quartararo admits does not bode well for Yamaha.
“Really strange, I didn't expect to struggle so much here [with fuel at Misano],” he said, “because it's not a track that usually we struggle, so Austria will be really difficult.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
