Andrea Dovizioso certainly cannot consider himself happy with how the Sepang tests went. In what was the first outing of the year, the man from Forlì struggled to find the right confidence with the M1, to the point of being some way behind the fastest riders.
“Today’s feelings were better, but not in the direction I was hoping for – he declared – maybe I could have done a better lap, but I didn’t have the bike under control the way I wanted to push hard. I tried to study and learn, but in the end what I can say is that I feel limited, because if small details are missing, I cannot go as well as I would like. All of this is difficult, given that the only one capable of making a difference is Quartararo.
The concern on the face of the Forlì is evident.
“Last year Fabio showed that you can be more competitive with the M1, but as I said before, each bike has different characteristics to the others. Right now the situation is unusual, because if I ride as I normally do it is complicated ”.
Dovizioso then tried to explain.
“I think the base of the M1 is solid, but there are some strange areas, like the chassis, that you need to focus on. Until we manage to take a step forward it becomes really complicated, because I think in this moment there is just the way of Fabio to ride this Yamaha and there are no other options. At the moment, I am unable to ride the M1 like Fabio and it is obvious ”.
At the same time, however, there are positive aspects.
“There are some really good things about the bike, like braking and the middle of the corner. The problem is that we don’t use the rear grip to be faster. But on the exit the bike is not that good, and it is difficult to be fast in that way, like Fabio is doing. I am of the opinion that the bike hasn’t changed much from last year”.
Now his mind is focussed on Mandalika.
“I am happy to go and try on another track, even if I don’t know what will happen. With the engineers we have been able to work in a clear and transparent way, explaining what the situation is. Inside me I realized what the characteristics of the Yamaha are, but it takes time. I don’t know if we will be able to solve everything in the next test ”.
