Yamaha fix ‘going to take time’
Yamaha’s ongoing grip woes aren’t about to end soon. That is the assessment of Valentino Rossi ahead of this weekend’s French Grand Prix. The only hope they have of repeating last year’s win is if they get cooler conditions at Le Mans again.
In what was one of their most successful weekends of the year, and the last time that Viñales won a race, Yamaha were only denied a clean sweep of the podium when Rossi crashed on the last lap dicing with his team-mate. Speaking after last Monday’s test at Jerez following the Spanish Grand Prix, Rossi says that he thinks it will take substantial time for upgrades to appear from Japan. And it’s time he doesn’t have. “On paper Le Mans is a good track for Yamaha, but for now the situation is difficult because Suzuki, Honda and Ducati are all strong. I expect to be a little more competitive there.
“I spoke a lot after the last race with Yamaha and was quite hard with them. I’m not angry, but I’m explaining a situation that I’ve known about for months. I trust them, but I’m hoping that what I’ve said will give them more motivation to improve things.
“I’m in more of a rush than Yamaha, because maybe they will race for another hundred years and I know that I don’t have a lot more time. I’m trying to push them to shorten the time, because the reason I continue to race is to try to win championships!”