Yamaha MotoGP riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins were left dealing with arm issues following the Italian Grand Prix, with the duo stating the bike was “super heavy”.
Yamaha has made several changes to its M1 bike this season to try and get the bike challenging at the front again.
Throughout 2024 Quartararo has praised Yamaha’s efforts in delivering new parts to the bike, but he feels the new parts add too much weight to the cornering.
It is worth noting that Quartararo has suffered from arm pump throughout his career, but he thinks this is a separate issue that affected his arm during the race at Mugello.
Quartararo finished in a disappointing 18th place, starting from 15th on the grid.
Quartararo stated post-race to Autosport: “Especially from mid-race I had an issue so I could not really ride. We have to improve this area because it’s not arm pump.
“It’s just that my arm is clearly on the limit in this kind of tracks, so we have to find a solution.
“The grip that we are missing and the engine that is pushing us wide is making the bike super, super heavy.
“The number one priority right now for us is to find back the feeling we had in the past, especially on the change of direction.”
Quartararo believes Yamaha needs to take responsibility for these problems, as he went through similar arm issues at Jerez.
“It’s difficult. After Jerez I have the same [problem],” he said. “I already twice had the operation. Everything looks fine.
“But the problem comes, basically I have no space [in my arm to manoeuvre]. My muscle after the mid-race was clearly on the limit, so I don’t know what to do right now.
“I think I’m training in the best way as I’ve ever trained.”
Quartararo stated that the modern MotoGP bikes aren’t tough on the rider’s body: “No, because last year we had no problems.
“I think the way we did our bike this year something has been wrong because even if you are making steps forward, from the beginning of the year we feel that the bike is super heavy and we have to adjust it.
“So we have to find what is the main thing that is making this bike [tough to ride].”
Rins secured a promising tenth-place qualification spot, only for him to occupy the final point-scoring position with a 15th-placed finish.
The 28-year-old revealed that as soon as the bike finished he started to feel dizzy, once again stating how physically demanding the Japanese marque is to ride.
“I was struggling all the race,” he admitted. “I just lose two positions on the start. And then lap by lap I tried to be there, I tried to manage the bike, I tried to manage my physical condition because right now our bike is quite hard, it’s quite critical.
“I’m also destroyed. When I got back to the garage they had to help me because I was little dizzy. With the bike right now, with the problems that we have, everything gets harder and it’s very physical.
“You have to give more from yourself to patch the problems.”
