Why Yamaha must consider the unthinkable for the sake of its MotoGP future

Fabio Quartararo’s signing by Petronas SRT for the 2019 MotoGP season raised a lot of eyebrows when it was announced in the summer of 2018. The hype surrounding the young Frenchman, pegged as the next Marc Marquez when he came to grand prix racing, had long since died away as his years in Moto2 and Moto3 proved underwhelming.

Officially, he had just one grand prix victory in Moto2 (a second in Japan in 2018 was stripped from him due to a technical infringement). But SRT management believed greatly that the talent Quartararo possessed to dominate his pre-GP days was still there and just needed the right surroundings.

That became apparent very early into his tenure on the Yamaha, as he took six pole positions and seven podiums on a year-old M1 in 2019, putting in performances that pushed Marquez to last-lap battles on several occasions.

By the dawn of 2020, Yamaha had already decided that Quartararo was the true heir to Valentino Rossi’s seat at the factory squad and duly signed him for 2021. Three victories in a hugely unpredictable 2020 campaign for Yamaha further reinforced its decision.

Quartararo won the title in 2021 in his first time of asking with the factory Yamaha squad, ending its six-year drought dating back to Jorge Lorenzo in 2015. He hung on as best he could in 2022 down to the wire, as the bike clearly proved not competitive enough to challenge Pecco Bagnaia and Ducati, before the real downturn struck Yamaha.

The Frenchman is still without a victory since the 2022 German Grand Prix, as is Yamaha. He has made no secret of his dissatisfaction since, though Yamaha was able to keep him sweet for 2025 and 2026 with a big-money deal worth €12 million.

Aprilia couldn’t convince him with a reported €4 million contract. At the time, in 2024, Aprilia had only won four grands prix in 10 seasons, and its overall consistency in fighting for victories had yet to be proven.

In hindsight, at the end of 2025, it’s easy to consider Quartararo’s decision wrong and one blinded by greed. Given his form on the M1 compared to his stablemates, it’s clear to see why he held out in the way he did: he’s acutely aware of how good a rider he is and just what kind of a price tag that should come with.

In some regards, that self-confidence looks a little narrow-minded in light of Marc Marquez giving up a salary to ride a winning bike at Gresini in 2024. But that’s comparing apples and oranges. Marquez was at a point where doubt had crept in, following his injury in 2020 and the uncompetitive bikes Honda was building.

Turning 31 in 2024, he knew time was against him to prove he could still win titles. He’s obviously proven that now, and then some, and Ducati’s base contract of around €3m (plus bonuses, according to reports) looks like an absolute steal on its part. Come 2027 negotiations, however, Marquez will be pushing hard to be compensated for what he is worth.

Aprilia’s step in 2025 poses a big what-if for Quartararo’s contract decision, but given the success he’d enjoyed with Yamaha previously, and the engineering might of Max Bartolini convincing him, re-signing in Iwata made sense.

Yamaha has relied too much on Quartararo in recent years

Yamaha’s decline in recent years hasn’t knocked Quartararo off his standing as one of the grid’s absolute best riders. The 2025 season continued to cement that, as he broke into the top 10 in the championship in ninth.

He was the only representative of a Japanese brand inside the top 10 in the riders’ standings, which is impressive given Honda won a grand prix and managed a handful of other podiums. Yamaha, by contrast, scored just one Sunday rostrum at the Spanish Grand Prix, when Quartararo was second.

In the final rankings, Quartararo was 122 points clear of Yamaha’s next-best runner, which was Jack Miller in 17th on the Pramac Yamaha.

Out of 22 rounds, Quartararo qualified inside the top 10 in 20 of them, and made Q2 in all but one event. His three other Yamaha stablemates all combined for just one front row start, while Quartararo had 10, six of which pole positions.

He managed 10 top 10 finishes on the underwhelming M1, compared to five for Miller, while Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira had just two apiece.

Yamaha has on its hands a generational talent, but there is no hiding the fact that it has fumbled four years where he should have been stepping into the prime of his career following his world title in 2021.

It’s why Quartararo’s comments are often harsh when it comes to the bike Yamaha has put on the grid and the progress it has made. And Yamaha can’t be overly upset with that, given his commitment to the brand up to now.

It has tried to match this. Bringing in Max Bartolini as technical director has provided a great deal of motivation for Quartararo, as well as reassurance. Yamaha’s decision to build a V4 deserves immense credit for pushing the boat out to convince Quartararo to commit his future.

But impatience is clearly getting to both sides now.

Quartararo has been less-than-enthusiastic about the bike he has tested so far this year. He toned down his comments in Valencia, but was also reticent to suggest that there were any real strong points from the V4, other than that he liked the way it rode.

The key issue with the V4 right now is a lack of front-end feeling, which was about the only strong point of the inline-four bike. This is a project at the very beginning of its lifespan, so Yamaha is not setting any expectations for the first half of next year.

But Quartararo has already said he has no time to wait for Yamaha to convince him in a rider market that will move incredibly quickly for 2027.

Why Yamaha needs to consider a future without Quartararo

Quartararo’s constant criticism of the old bike and the V4 so far has rankled Yamaha boss Paolo Pavesio, who was firm in his position when speaking to Speedweek recently. Pavesio said he “understood” why Quartararo was frustrated, but added: “We’re all professionals and we’re in the same boat. We offered him the opportunity to race for Yamaha, and he accepted…Complaining too much in public doesn’t help the company’s commitment.”

It’s become apparent in recent weeks that Yamaha’s patience is starting to be tested, and perhaps Quartararo’s being too single-minded about the V4 project. He, understandably, wants a competitive package now. Yamaha has made no secret that this isn’t possible.

As contract negotiation time looms, Yamaha is at a crossroads. It has nothing immediate to offer Quartararo, other than more money and the promise that down the line the V4 project will work out.

By now, Quartararo knows money doesn’t necessarily buy you the best bike, and the lesson of Marquez will almost certainly be something he thinks on when making his 2027 decision.

Quartararo will also be well aware that, during his time in the premier class, he has turned down rides at Ducati and Aprilia - the two best bikes on the grid now. If an opportunity presents itself, he’s not going to miss out for a third time.

The 2027 850cc rule reset makes picking where to go a lottery. But only one bike right now doesn’t look like it has the potential to win a race, and that’s the Yamaha. If Yamaha is to convince Quartararo to stay, it will be doing so based purely on the possibility that it will get its V4 right, that this will carry into the 850cc engine, and that Toprak Razgatlioglu will help the brand unlock the secrets of the Pirellis early on.

That said, the progress the likes of Honda, Ducati and Aprilia have made make it hard to imagine that all of those brands will suddenly hit the skids in 2027. It’s worth noting that the last time there was a tyre manufacturer change, Yamaha was the one who was impacted the most.

And if Yamaha doesn’t pick up the pace next year and start 2027 well, tensions will only worsen between both parties.

So, maybe Yamaha has to do the once unthinkable and cut Quartararo loose.

Yamaha already knows what it’s like to have a rider on its books who isn’t happy and believes he should be on a more competitive bike with Maverick Vinales in 2021. And even when it agreed to end his two-year deal early, the atmosphere didn’t improve.

The brand, with its V4, is now at a point where it needs all riders pulling in the same direction. Alex Rins and Jack Miller haven’t fought for titles recently, so in many ways it is easier for them to temper expectations. Still, Yamaha needs the feedback of its top rider to match that of the rest of the stable on the V4.

If Quartararo’s focus is solely on results, it will hold back the V4 project, not least in a year where Razgatlioglu is both learning MotoGP and also helping develop the 2027 bike.

Yamaha also only has to look to Honda to see why parting ways with your superstar can actually help you in the long run. Losing Marquez was something of a rock bottom for Honda at the end of 2023.

But the money it wasn’t paying him was being redirected into the project. By the end of 2024, Honda has signed Romano Albesiano as technical director and Aleix Espargaro as a strong test rider. In 2025, it was competitive to the point that it was already courting names like Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta for next season. Ahead of 2027, Honda will be a major player on the rider market, with Quartararo’s name being linked.

Forging ahead without the rider who extracted the most out of a bike does help a brand to develop something more rounded, again, as Honda has shown.

Yamaha faces weak rider market prospects for 2027

There would, of course, be some short-term pain for Yamaha. But this is already something it faces, even with Quartararo on its books: its market value is low. With every factory seat up for grabs, the line of riders looking for a Yamaha for 2027 isn’t going to be long, nor will it be populated with top-tier names.

Yamaha’s roster in 2024 already hinted at this. It had its triple-A talent in Quartararo, but the depth of its line-up was weak. Alex Rins, Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira are proven race winners, yes. But Rins has been a shadow of himself since his leg injury in 2023, while Miller was very nearly out of the paddock for 2025 before his passport proved useful. Oliveira’s results had also declined in his two years on a satellite Aprilia, albeit with injuries holding him back.

Signing three-time World Superbike champion Razgatlioglu caused a stir, but there is a sense that it was now or never for the Turkish superstar. Few doubt he won’t figure MotoGP out, though, and perhaps Yamaha has felt more emboldened to be openly critical of Quartararo’s complaints because it has a potential stud on its hands in Razgatlioglu.

Regardless, it’s hard to see how Yamaha gets a name of equal value to Quartararo’s in the event he does leave. But that is something it will have to swallow for the greater good of the project to fulfil its ambitions of fighting for championships again.

In many ways, Yamaha is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. But, sometimes, a different approach is needed.