Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Prepped to Perform in French GP
Le Mans (France), 10th May 2023
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammates Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are heading to France for the fifth round of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship, held at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit this weekend.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team are ready to put up a fight at the Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit during this weekend‘s Grand Prix de France, aiming to hear the fans screaming “Allez Les Bleus!”.
This round is especially important for home hero Fabio Quartararo, who finished here just off the podium last year and is keen to make up for it this weekend. The Bugatti track has traditionally been a strong circuit for Yamaha, so El Diablo is fully motivated to offer some stiff competition, like he did when he scored third place on his home soil in 2021. The local hero is currently 11th in the championship standings and determined to climb up in the rankings.
After four rounds, Morbidelli holds 12th in the championship order. Following the overall positive one-day IRTA test in Jerez that was held immediately after the Spanish GP, the number-21 rider‘s goal for this weekend is to confirm some of his findings again. The Le Mans track is a good place to do so: Morbido likes this circuit, as underlined by his 2017 Moto2 race win.
The Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit was built in 1965, just a few kilometres from the city of Le Mans. MotoGP made its first visit to the iconic French track in the late sixties, and it remained a fixture until 1996. After some safety modifications, the 4.2km-long circuit was added back to the calendar in 2000. Its layout of five left and nine right corners places the emphasis on late braking, hard acceleration, and rear-end traction, which makes for some great battles.
Those who want to watch some early Bugatti track action can watch MotoGP eSport rider Lorenzo Daretti navigate a very wet French circuit in this week‘s eLap video.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
Team Director
We are now in Le Mans. We were able to try some items and settings at the Jerez Test. Ideally, we also want to try them here, but the weather forecasts so far predict we might have multiple wet sessions this weekend. Our pace was good in the wet at the Portuguese and Argentina GP earlier this season, so we will make sure to be ready either way. This is a very important race weekend for Fabio. The French fans wholeheartedly support him, and that will give us all an extra boost to give it our best shot and show our true potential.
FABIO QUARTARARO
I expected better results when I arrived in Jerez, so I‘m now looking forward to a rematch in Le Mans this weekend. We have left all the drama of the last race weekend behind us: I prefer to focus on the work we have to do and the goals that we want to achieve. It‘s my home GP, so I‘m looking forward to seeing and hearing the fans. I want to keep a positive mindset, do my best, and hopefully get some good results.
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
The Jerez Test was interesting for us, so I‘m curious to see if the things we found will also work in Le Mans. A dry weekend would be good for us in order to cross-check the data. But should it rain, that too could be interesting. I felt confident in the wet, especially in Argentina, so I‘m curious to see if in those conditions we can do a good job again. Either way, we want to avoid starting from too far back on the grid, so that‘s what we‘ll work on right from P1 on Friday.
