Yamaha still not a match for my riding style

Alex Rins says he is still struggling to adapt his riding style to the Yamaha M1 package and feels he cannot simply copy Fabio Quartararo’s efforts in MotoGP.

With Rins approaching the conclusion of his maiden premier class campaign with the Japanese manufacturer, he has consistently been unable to match team-mate Quartararo’s performances and results.

That has continued in Thailand, with Quartararo ending Friday 12th overall and Rins down in 18th, with almost half a second splitting them on single-lap pace.

After a 2023 MotoGP season blighted by injury, Rins’ switch from Honda to Yamaha has seen him struggle to get back to the form that had him score five victories with Suzuki, along with his sole triumph for Honda in the United States last year.

While Rins’ arrival coincided with Yamaha’s ongoing difficulty in extracting more performance from the M1 package, the Spaniard – who has a best result of ninth place in Aragon this season – feels he still doesn’t have a bike to suit his riding style.

“Every time I come back from the track I try to give good feedback, I still do not feel that they have given me a bike that resembles my riding style,” he commented after Friday practice for the Thailand Grand Prix.

Rins feels he simply cannot copy Quartararo’s riding style and that it wouldn’t be a fruitful pursuit regardless, given the French rider is also unable to be competitive at the sharp end of the grid.

“I cannot copy Fabio’s bike, I do not have his riding style,” he added. “When I come back from the track the feedback I give is the best I know. In the end there are no bad people here in MotoGP, Yamaha is a factory team that has the best people.

“Obviously he is going through a tough time, but Fabio has won a championship and many races with this bike, and now he is not achieving it, and there is a reason for that.

“We are in a period of quite a bit of stress, of evolution and maybe that is what we have to go through now.”