Clear ultimatum for Yamaha - MotoGP Star Fabio Quartararo fed up
Categories: MotoGP
After months of failed development on the M1 MotoGP star, Fabio Quartararo gives Yamaha one last chance to convince him. The Japanese have “one month”.
For months Fabio Quartararo has been asking Yamaha for a competitive bike and for months the Japanese have been unable to deliver the 2021 World Champion the package he wants.
After several stages of development remained unsuccessful and neither the bike nor the position in Teams’ and Constructors’ Championship could be improved, the Frenchman sets the success-spoiled manufacturer one last and clear ultimatum.
After a disappointing first half of the season and probably the worst race weekend of his MotoGP career in the bones, Quartararo explains, “In the Misano test I want to have proof. They have a month.”
Every year since 2021, he says, Yamaha has delivered the Frenchman “a 10-page PDF document full of promises of which nine-and-a-half pages are not fulfilled.”
That Quartararo did not want to see the infamous document for 2023 shows how much the Frenchman’s trust in Yamaha has suffered over the past two years.
“I don’t want to see written things, what I want to see is the Misano bike, because that will be, at 95%, the one that will run in 2024.”
The Misano test could be the breaking point
Yamaha’s only world champion in the last eight years makes it clear that the future of the collaboration is at stake. “[At Misano] it will be seen if Yamaha really wants me for the future.”
Quartararo knows his value and knows that 2025 will create some new options for possible changes. Of particular interest: the contractual situation at Aprilia.
All four of the Noale-based manufacturer’s riders’ contracts expire at the end of 2024, and with Aleix Espargaro dropping hints here and there that retirement after the current contract could be a distinct possibility, there should at least be a spot open for a possible Quartararo-Aprilia commitment.
Of course, despite everything, the Frenchman is not giving up on Yamaha completely. After all, the Japanese are the ones who “had brought [him] to MotoGP in the first place.”
“Yamaha is the priority because it’s the brand that brought me into MotoGP – I trust Yamaha and I’ve given them a chance, but there won’t be a second.”
“I know what I want, I don’t want to get giddy. This will be very important to see what Yamaha does next year.”
