Fabio Quartararo has resigned himself to recognising the issues that need fixing on his Yamaha M1, but accepting they can’t be fixed during the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Spanish MotoGP in Jerez - a venue where Quartararo announced his future credentials as a title contender with a maiden pole position in 2019 and victory the following year in 2020 - Quartararo arrives on the back foot following an indifferent start to the 2023 campaign.

After poor qualifying performances hampered his results in Portugal and Argentina, Quartararo endured mixed fortunes in the United States when he crashed out of the Sprint Race but recovered to a podium in the main feature.

With Ducati the new force in MotoGP, Quartararo was asked whether he was in a position to exert a similar level of performance as he has in previous years, not least whether he had a hope of overtaking them anywhere.

“It’s difficult because in 2021, the corner speed we had was better compared to other manufacturers. We were better in corner speed but last year we were not. 

"Last year was really similar and I was behind Pecco but the pressures went so high, I could not stay close to him and I could not overtake. 

"I think the last corner is a great place to overtake. Last year I overtook nobody in the race. Hopefully we can turn it around for this race."

With this weekend’s Jerez round being followed by an in-season test, Quartararo admitted to recognising where Yamaha’s issues lie before adding that they can’t hope to fix them until 2024.

Nothing big [updates for the test], we know where we see it but we cannot touch it for this year. We will have some items, but nothing crazy.

To be honest I don’t know. I reported after all three races clearly where the problem is, where we can improve considering we cannot touch the engine. 

"It’s up to them to find a solution and to find something in this area at tracks like Austin. There’s many things, it's not just acceleration. 

"We cannot use the power because we are having issues with wheelie for so long. We have to fix it. But if we put more wings on the straight; we are already not that fast."

Quartararo’s downbeat demeanour will come as a disappointment for Yamaha, which lobbied hard to secure the Frenchman’s signature 12 months ago but agreed to make big changes to the M1 package in order to make it more competitive.

However, while the Yamaha does indeed appear quicker in a straight line, the M1 is still down on its rivals - especially Ducati - in terms of top speed.