Fabio Quartararo will “evaluate” Yamaha MotoGP’s competitiveness after the opening “five races” of the 2025 season.
Yamaha experienced its worst season in MotoGP history and finished second to last in the Constructors Championship.
In a bid to get back to its old self, the team made several changes in its upper management and formed a new partnership with Pramac Racing to serve as its satellite outfit.
Paolo Pavesio replaced long-serving Lin Jarvis as the Japanese marque’s team manager, though Jarvis remains as an advisor.
The Frenchman has reasons to be optimistic after the two 2025 pre-season tests in Sepang and Buriram.
Yamaha finished in the top three on each day in Malaysia, but Thailand helped the marque identify areas for improvement.
“[I’m] ready,” Quartararo said on Thursday to Crash.net ahead of the season opener.
“Testing was nice, it was positive for us. Now it’s time to really race, which is the most fun part and see a little bit where we are because testing is one thing, but some made the time attack in the morning, some in the afternoon.
“So the lap time is a little bit different. In Malaysia, everyone did the lap time in the morning, of course, but here was quite different.
“But let’s see. We will evaluate the first five races to see where we are.”
Fabio Quartararo has no ‘goal’ for MotoGP season opener
The 2021 champion explained that he and Yamaha set no goals for the season opener in Thailand.
He explained that he sees improvement but admitted that his struggles with the front-end feeling around the circuit during testing could be a problem for the weekend ahead.
“Like I said, testing is different because we made two days only with Michelin rubber [on track].
“So, let’s see in race mode what we can do. But first of all I think we are better than last year.
“Last year’s test I finished 11th and 14th, this year third and eighth. So, already we start with a better base and then we’ll see how we finish.
“But I don’t want to set a goal right now because, to be honest, I don’t have any goal.
“Let’s see because usually it’s not really related to our bike because I never had this issue last year,” he said of working on his front feeling.
“Even when we were struggling I never had this issue and especially I was not feeling well with the front tyre.
“So, even if it is the same tyres let’s see if the feeling is different during the sessions and during this weekend. But this will be our main focus for this race.”
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