Yamaha's MotoGP test disaster ends all hope of re-signing Fabio Quartararo

In the fullness of time, Yamaha’s inability to dominate in MotoGP over the last seven years with one of the modern era’s generational talents will be looked upon as one of the biggest fumbles in sport.

Yamaha, in a lot of ways, lucked into having Fabio Quartararo on its books. The hype that followed him into the grand prix paddock in 2015 when he made his Moto3 debut had long since died away by the start of the 2018 Moto2 season, where his MotoGP aspirations looked even further from remote.

But the Petronas SRT squad, who made its MotoGP debut in 2019, saw that the young Frenchman still possessed world-beating talent and just needed the right environment to bring that out of him. Joining SRT for his MotoGP debut in 2019, an impressive pre-season already set the wheels in motion for Quartararo to be positioned as a future Yamaha success story.

He scored seven podiums that year, narrowly missing victories at the San Marino and Thai Grands Prix. In 2020, he scored his first wins, three in total, though inconsistent Yamaha machinery saw his title challenge crumble dramatically by the end of the campaign. On reflection, this was a preview of what was to ultimately follow for the Quartararo/Yamaha partnership.

Everything came together for him in 2021, as he stormed to a maiden world title and Yamaha’s first since 2015 with Jorge Lorenzo. While it didn’t come in the head-to-head with Marc Marquez that 2019 promised prior to the Spaniard’s arm injury in 2020, it nevertheless proved why SRT felt he was worth signing a few years earlier, and justified Yamaha’s call to move Valentino Rossi out of the factory squad for him.

Already in 2021, it was evident that Quartararo was a cut above the rest of Yamaha’s stable. But what should have been the start of a new Yamaha dynasty, akin to its years of winning with Valentino Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo, rapidly fell apart at the seams.

He won three more races in 2022, but the competitiveness of the M1 was starting to wane as Ducati emerged with the best bike. He lost out to Pecco Bagnaia at the finale, who overturned a mid-season 91-point deficit.

Yamaha hasn’t won a grand prix since then.

Time was already against Yamaha to convince Quartararo

There were three podiums for Quartararo in 2023, as he went from runner-up in the standings to 10th. There were none the year after, as Yamaha hit its nadir. He dragged a podium out of the M1 in Spain last season and six pole positions to end the campaign ninth with 201 points - more than his three Yamaha stablemates combined.

Already late last year, Quartararo was piling pressure on Yamaha to sort out its bike if it had any hopes of retaining him for 2027. To Yamaha’s credit, it has poured resources into developing a V4 engine concept in tandem to the 2027 850cc project, in the hopes that it can engineer its way back into being a competitive force.

But it was clear by the end of last year that the V4 wasn’t doing enough to convince Quartararo.

Prior to the Sepang test beginning, Quartararo was already being reported as having signed a deal to join Honda next season. He admitted that Honda is one of the brands he is talking to, but denied that a deal was signed.

At Yamaha’s season launch last month, there appeared to have been no talks between Quartararo and the Japanese marque over a new deal. At Sepang, Yamaha boss Paolo Pavesio had nothing much to offer beyond hope.

“Fabio is in Yamaha since seven year [ago] and this is year eight of a long-lasting relationship,” he said. “We said to each other before taking a break for the winter that this moment was important. We’re still looking forward to sitting together to plan our future. I hope there can be a future if there is a common willingness to have a future together. For sure, I would be stupid if not.

“But I also think it’s super important to reassess where we are. I don’t know if there is an offer from Honda. I know there are 20 riders and five manufacturers; everybody speaks to everybody. We are doing our best to create a better Yamaha package for our riders, and if this would convince Yamaha to stay, I would be very happy. If this convinces Fabio to move somewhere else, I would have to accept it.”

Much of Quartararo’s comments in recent months have come with an impatient tone. He wants a package he can win with now. That was never going to happen so early into the V4 M1’s lifespan, but perhaps he would have been somewhat more convinced - or at least, more conflicted - if the bike showed tangible promise in testing.

That hasn’t happened.

Quartararo suffered a fast crash at Turn 5 early on the opening day of the official test, breaking a finger. He returned to the session in the afternoon and was impressively ninth overall, just under four tenths clear of the next-best Yamaha of Pramac’s Jack Miller. However, he elected to sit out the rest of the test as a result of his crash. He had already been out on track for two days at the shakedown. 

However, on Wednesday, reports of technical woes emerged from the Sepang paddock. Quartararo had, what he described as, an ‘electrical’ issue during Tuesday afternoon’s running.

Yamaha says it knows what the problem is, but can’t diagnose a fix. On safety grounds, it sat out all of day two and could be done for the test entirely. Word in the paddock is that it could be overheating with the engine. Quartararo admitted on Tuesday that a “strange” issue caused his crash, though it wasn’t related to the problems he experienced in the afternoon. That said, one has to wonder if his decision to sit out the rest of the test was based on the safety implications of this engine issue.

“Yesterday Fabio stopped on the track. We checked what the problem was and didn't find a clear solution,” Yamaha technical boss Max Bartolini said. “We have an idea, but considering the safety of the riders - our riders and also the other riders - we decided before coming back on track to really understand the problem and what we should do to be safer.

“So we decided for today not to run and to keep checking and try to figure out for tomorrow. Hopefully, we find a good solution for this evening, and we can run tomorrow.”

Yamaha's testing woes coincide with Honda showing strength 

Yamaha’s initial running of the V4 was done with a downtuned engine last year. Speed trap figures showed Yamaha at the bottom of the pile on Tuesday, with the fastest M1 some 10km/h down on the fastest machine, which was Enea Bastianini’s KTM.

If Yamaha’s troubles are because of it pushing more power out of the engine, then it’s concerning to see it producing not a lot. Of greater concern is what Yamaha does next if it can’t find a solution, chiefly because it can’t hope to successfully develop the rest of the M1 when the engine is running at reduced output. At present, Quartararo described the V4's standing as "very, very far away" from the rest.

Testing times don’t count for much, but Yamaha’s engine woes coinciding with Honda leading Wednesday’s results with Joan Mir is a heap of bitter irony for the Iwata manufacturer.

Mir, while admitting the RC213V still need to improve rear grip, says the 2026 bike is the best he has ridden at Honda. A few days before the Sepang test, HRC test rider Aleix Espargaro declared it the best bike he’s ever ridden in MotoGP.

Those comments can only receive an accurate evaluation after a half-dozen rounds or so of the 2026 campaign. But the optimism and tangible on-track results are hard to ignore; Fabio Quartararo certainly won’t be. Conversely, neither will Jorge Martin, who is said to be close to finalising a deal with Yamaha, having last year been linked to Honda during a summer spent trying to engineer an exit from a winning project at Aprilia.

This year was always going to be one of growing pains for Yamaha as it gets to grips with its first V4 of the modern era. The brand was never under any illusions that success would come instantly.

However, it had to at least put a bike on track this winter that offered some kind of suggestion of potential if it was to have any hope of re-signing Quartararo for the 2027 season.

So far, though, it has only justified Quartararo’s reported decision to leave for Honda…