Yamaha’s MotoGP bike development continues this weekend in Malaysia, and both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins expressed excitement about the new electronics updates.
Quartararo, who returned to the standard M1 engine for Saturday after experimenting with a new specification on Friday, noted that the updated electronics provide significantly more throttle control for riders.
“Basically, we have made some big changes on the electronics,” Quartararo said. “Always when I talk to Max [Bartolini], he says that the electronics is something that we are really far away. So, I wanted to make a big change this weekend. If it was working — it’s working perfect — but even if it was a disaster, I wanted to try because […] electronics is quite critical and can easily cause a high-side.”
He added, “I have to control much more [the throttle]. It’s much more difficult for me to ride the bike, but we have more performance, and this is what we are looking for.”
Despite the performance boost, Quartararo acknowledged that the Yamaha’s lack of grip compared to competitors like Ducati makes riding challenging. “I have to take care much more — I’m much more reliant on traction control,” he explained. “When we compare to the Ducati, it’s much more difficult to ride because we don’t have enough grip to fully control the throttle. Our bike is really moving and shaking, making it harder to optimize performance.”
Quartararo also highlighted that the timing of the update stems from Yamaha’s progress in other areas. “It was possible [to bring the update before], but we had much more difficulties in other things,” he noted. “Now, we can analyze what others are doing better, and I could observe more from behind, which made it a great time to implement this, especially here with many corners where we can feel it.”
Teammate Alex Rins also benefited from the new electronics, using the updated engine in the Sprint. “It was a really positive day,” Rins concluded. “From the morning, we tested the strategy on electronics from Misano, and the good feeling came back. [I have] a little bit more of the bike in my hand, which is so important because I’m used to riding like this on Suzuki. It helps control the spin and improves engine braking, making the rear tire more connected with the asphalt.”
Regarding the new engine, Rins mentioned that it does not offer significant advantages in top-end power compared to previous specifications. “Regarding the power on the top speed, it has more or less the same,” Rins said. “With the big muffler, we found around one or two horsepower more, but since this morning, we’ve been using the smaller one we tested in Misano — it’s working a bit better for the electronics.”