The M1 was branded as a driver-friendly motorcycle for years. In the past seasons Johann Zarco, Jonas Folger and Fabio Quartararo were able to jump on the motorcycle and stand on the podium in their first season.
The 2020 M1 proved to be more difficult to handle as the older frame lost cornering performance compared to the 2019 chassis.
And while the 2021 chassis has better turning capabilities, Quartararo notes that he’ll have to push the bike a lot harder than in 2019 to get quick lap times.
“I think I had a bit of problems with the 2020 bike, because from 2019 the difference in my riding style was, the more I pushed, the slower I am,” he explained after the second qualifying on Saturday. “And with 2020 and ’21 [bike] You have to push like hell to get the lap time and it’s not really the way I ride, but it’s the way the bike works.
“I think the story of Yamaha being a simple bike is pretty much over. We have to push like hell to get the lap time. I’ve evaluated [being] a bit aggressive on the bike, but I feel so comfortable too.
“We have to work this way for qualifying and try to be great at the pace at the end of the race because there are two different ways to go in qualifying and in the race. We have to separate the two jobs well. “
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Factory team-mate Maverick Vinales will start alongside Quartararo for the 2021 opening lap after relegating Petronas SRT’s Valentino Rossi to third place after qualifying passed away.
Vinales showed a strong endurance pace in the previous FP4 session, but admits that in a racing situation he still has to “understand” the strengths of the 2021 M1.
“From my point of view, we still need to understand the strengths of the bike,” he said. “Of course it’s not an easy bike to overtake on, but here in Qatar there are a lot of places where you don’t need a fast bike to overtake.
“Sure, it will be difficult, but we have to understand how to get the maximum overtaking potential of the bike. Maybe it can be cornering speed or late braking. We know we can pass many places here in Qatar, so tomorrow we have a clear spot to attack. “
SRT’s Franco Morbidelli finished qualifying seventh for the slowest Yamaha, after beating FP3 and being named a favorite by Ducati’s Jack Miller on Friday.
In the evenings he showed his speed losses and his ‘A-spec’ M1 has “two different personalities” from day to night.
“It looks like we’re lacking a bit of speed during the night. So tomorrow we’ll try to at least reconcile the two different personalities we have,” he said. “When the sun is shining, we are very fast, we are incredibly fast. But when night comes we’re still fast, but not enough.
“So tomorrow we’re going to try something to increase our speed at night.”