The Yamaha boss has o🐠ff🎐ered a brutally honest assessment ahead of the 2024 MotoGP season.

Concession rules were introduced to give the flailing Yamaha and Honda a boost i💟n their pursuit of the dominant Ducatis.

But, with preseason now concluded and the season starting on March 8, Yamaha a🌸re admitting surprise a꧟t aspects of their own development.

Team director Massimo Meregalli said in Qꦺatar: “Here, we could prove what we saw in Malaysia.

“All the improvements that we have🏅 done there, we basically s🧜aw here.

“With a slight improvement in top speed.

But the gap to our competitor is still important.

“Honestly, I hoped that we would be closer.

“Honestly, I did not♌ expect that the competitors would mak🤡e this big step.”

A recurring theme for Yamaha🐷 is their qualifying pace.

Fabio Quartararo repeatedly faced problems even entering Q2 last seasౠon.

The prognosis is not good for h⛎is hopes that those struggles might ease.

“Unfortunately, no,” Meregalli admitted.

“The pace is not bad. For sure, not in the toꦗp three, but it’s not bad.

“Esp𝓀ecially here, more than in Sepang, the gap during the time attacks is still important.

“It’s the point where🥀 we should focus all of the energy that we hav🦋e.

“Many times, to start from the front🍰 gives you benefits.

“It is an area that we have to improve.”

Quartararo previously assessed his time attacks during preseason testing: “It was good to see the ♔1m 51s but we are still far from the top.

“We have a lot of work to do.

“Hopefully we can find a sol🐼ution during the season. W🔥e are still far away but it was positive.”

T🌃here are some benefits to the 2024 Yamaha though.

The M1’s new eജngine pushed Quartararo to third, and Alex Rins to fifth, in the top speed char𒁏t on Day 2 of Qatar testing.

🔥“I think Yamaha has impꦜroved the engine,” Rins said.

“On the straight we were quite strong, s෴o they did a good ♓job during the winter break.”