Quartararo: "I was excited to finish seventh in Austin and that was ridiculous"

For the first time in many GGPPs the French fabio quartararo was left at the official press conference on Portuguese GP Media Day. The world champion has been a permanent focus of ‘mercato’ interest since the announcement of Yamaha’s renewal is not coming, even though there seems to be a close position between his manager Eric Mahé and the head of Yamaha Motorsport who and Lin Jarvis. And what seems clear is that as long as the fat piece of ‘mercato’ Quartararo is not put in place, the rest will not be moved to 2022 where most contracts end.

At the official presentation of the French GP in Paris last week was where he spoke more clearly about it: “I would not say that everything is possible, but you have to study the market. Of course, I know I know that. My representative talked that I would have one with him when I felt I had to make a decision about the future. I had no idea when it would be decided, but I knew I was in good hands. “

And the Frenchman insisted that “I know my agent is taking care of my future and, at the moment, I only have one thing on my mind, to try to do my best this season. Of course, my future will be decided in the long run. ; how long, I don’t know. I think it’s before summer. “

At the start of the European section of MotoGP Quartararo what he hopes more is that Yamaha will stretch with updates that allow him to be more competitive.

“In recent races I’ve felt like I’ve ridden better. When you feel like the bike isn’t right, that’s what I feel now, you’re trying to do your best and make a difference. I know I have the material to be. this, I Focus on riding the best I can.I gave it my all in Austin, I learned a lot.You learn more when you have a problem than when you win races.I was happy to finish 7th in Austin and that’s ridiculous. I’m the world champion, I hope I have new parts soon. The bike, it looks like it will be like this “, he acknowledged Portimao.

On whether this weekend could be a turning point, he reasons that “Portimao is not bad for the Yamahas. There is grip, there are few corners where you can really use the rear wheel, except the last one. It can be a good track for us, or a bad one.Last year I was strong and then I suffered when I found myself behind the Ducatis.Many will depend on qualification.My plan is to always push myself into being qualify, I have no better plan than that.In Austin I gave up all my mistakes but that was the only way to fight others.In Indonesia, the track was better for us and it actually went well for us , but I have to give it my all. I didn’t get worse in qualifying, but I’m at the limit. “

“This track can be 50% for us, while Jerez and Le Mans will be very important for us, I can’t go wrong. That’s the only place I can compete for the title, I have to be on the podium to aim to continue the fight until at the end of the world championship “, he explained.

And he gives all the credit to leader Enea Bastianini: “Bastianini is a very serious contender for the title. Last year he was fast, but in qualifying I can say he was bad. But this year he is strong even on Saturday and has a great racing pace. So far he is the only one the driver from Ducati who knows how to ride a bike like that usually uses a soft front end and I’m sure his bike moves a lot but he likes his style differently than others but we have to take him seriously as a candidate, because he is driving amazing now.