Fabio Quartararo had to settle for 10th place at the MotoGP Misano race after starting from 13th, but a more concerning issue was the fuel consumption problem he faced throughout the race. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider revealed that his bike was running out of fuel from the start, forcing him to use the leanest engine mode.
“I would say that I was not so far from P6 I think,” Quartararo said after the race. “But we had many difficulties with the fuel during this race, I don't know why. In the dashboard I had the lights and the lights were completely crazy, so I was a bit lost.”
This issue is not just a performance matter but a serious threat: if the fuel light turns red, the rider risks not finishing the race. Quartararo admitted that throughout the race he had to sacrifice engine power to save fuel. “We have to play because we can't use all the power we have, and at the end I don't know why that today we struggled a lot,” he added.
Nevertheless, Quartararo was still able to set competitive lap times. “I have three maps on the bike, so it's one, two, three,” he explained. “[Number] one is the one that supposedly the bike goes faster, the two is in the middle and the three is the less rich. So I make most of the race with the map three, that I was a bit under-potential, and even like that I make 1m31.7s, 1m31.8s, so I was not super, super-bad.”
However, using the leanest map did not make the fuel light go off. “No, it stays,” he responded. “So it stays and then basically [if the light is] red you don't finish the race. So basically I was without fuel just going into the pit lane.”
What makes this situation even more worrying is that Misano is not a high-consumption track. In the post-race press conference, the top three riders – Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, and Pedro Acosta – said they had no problems with fuel consumption. “Really strange, I didn't expect to struggle so much here,” Quartararo said. “Because it's not a track that usually we struggle, so Austria will be really difficult.”
The Red Bull Ring, host of the Austrian GP, is known as the highest-consumption track on the calendar due to its stop-and-go layout. With the problem unresolved, Yamaha faces a tough challenge. If at Misano Quartararo already had to battle with fuel, Austria could be worse. The team must find a solution quickly, both in terms of engine mapping and aerodynamic efficiency, before the race in Spielberg.
Failure to address this issue will not only affect race results but also team morale and the development of the YZR-M1, which is already lagging behind its rivals. Quartararo, whose contract is expiring, certainly hopes Yamaha can bounce back. However, if this fuel problem persists, he may have to fight in the midfield again, or worse, fail to finish.
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