RNF Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow furious with his performance!



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RNF Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow furious with his performance!

RNF Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow has no easy task replacing Andrea Dovizioso. Cal is not happy with the situation considering he finished 17th in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix practice. “I must be too competitive, because I’m pissed off I’m not in the top 10, really pissed off,” Crutchlow said for motorsport.com “I felt good but the last tyre I had was really bad, and I never had anywhere near the same grip as I had in the first tyre.

“The first tyre I felt too good, and then I thought ‘Ok, I’ve got a good banker and I know I can take a tenth a sector’. “One tenth per sector puts me in. And it just didn’t happen. I had the perfect marker, Jack [Miller] let me follow him and I left him at half a second because I didn’t want to be too close for the last run, but I had a bad tyre.

“So, I couldn’t even exit the corner. I could enter the corner not too bad, “I just couldn’t exit. I said to Jack after, actually… he never hit one apex, and he still made the lap. And I said ‘if it takes that commitment, I’m not doing it’ because he was so wide, he was blowing the corners left, right and centre and he still made the lap”.

New vs old package

Crutchlow talked about the differences between the current Yamaha and the 2023 package “I can’t tell you,” he said. “For sure it’s faster in the straight, the one I was riding a few weeks ago.

But Yamaha hasn’t re-designed their bike for 2023. “It looks the same and they’ve done a good job. As we know, they have a new chassis and the guys are using it also." He is happy that Yamaha is making an effort and that they want to make a big story.

Many believe that it is still far from good, but it is clear that the whole team is giving their maximum. Yamaha is a big name and will not give up on the project. “That was an improvement in two areas, but for me not an improvement in one area that was quite critical.

“But the others guys like it in different areas, which is positive, they’re making good steps. So, never have I seen Yamaha put in so much effort. “So, that’s a good thing. But the bike’s fast, the new one is fast and first and foremost that’s the main the thing”.