Fabio Quartararo was keen to remain realistic following his first podium of the 2023 MotoGP term in the Americas Grand Prix, admitting the result “doesn’t solve the problems we have.”
The factory Yamaha racer repeated his aggressive start from Saturday’s sprint race to move up from seventh on the grid to fourth on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas, which then became third after Jack Miller crashed his KTM approaching mid-distance.
An unlikely victory then looked to be potentially on the cards after pole-man Francesco Bagnaia crashed the lead, leaving only LCR Honda’s Alex Rins ahead of him – though he ultimately lacked the pace from his M1 to challenge, and instead slipped back to his eventual finishing position of third after being passed by VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini.
Despite admitting that his first rostrum result of the year was good for his “self confidence”, Quartararo was keen to point out it “doesn’t solve the problems we have” as he continued to struggle with excessive wheelie on his machine, which is preventing him from accelerating from corners as well as he’d like.
“This doesn’t solve all the problems we have, but for my self confidence and the team’s its good, we’ve worked super hard so this podium is great for the team and gives us some confidence for the next races,” explained the 2021 MotoGP world champion to BT Sport.
“It was the same problem as yesterday because with the power and acceleration we have, the wheelie we are getting means we can’t use (power), and I need to use it in a totally different way so I’m happy with the podium but not happy with how we are going.
“The worse qualifying I’ve done there (Jerez) was second so hopefully we can really make a big step forward in qualifying there, so this will be my goal to be on the front row straightaway there.”
Despite a tough opening part of the campaign – Quartararo having scored a best result of seventh in the Argentinean GP prior to his Americas podium – he only lies 30 points adrift of series leader Marco Bezzecchi and 19 behind Bagnaia heading into the European portion of the season, the segment last year where he really got into his stride and built up a significant points lead.
