‘I’m not having fun’ - Fabio Quartararo talks Yamaha MotoGP exit and Honda move

At the end of the 2026 MotoGP campaign, Fabio Quartararo will have completed his eighth season in the premier class. And by now, it’s not unfair to suggest that he should have more than just the one world title he secured in 2021 with Yamaha.

Coming to the grand prix paddock in 2015 hailed as the next Marc Marquez, Quartararo’s MotoGP prospects looked pretty remote by the start of the 2018 Moto2 season. He had just one victory in grand prix racing by this point and was beginning to question what he was even doing anymore.

Then came a second win, and first in Moto2, at Barcelona. All of a sudden, he was signing a deal to come to MotoGP with Petronas SRT Yamaha for 2019. It was a move that raised some eyebrows, but SRT management knew the potential that Quartararo displayed coming into grand prix racing was still there.

The next few years saw him rapidly rise into one of MotoGP’s elite riders, scoring seven podiums in his debut year, three grand prix wins in 2020, signing with Yamaha as Valentino Rossi’s factory team replacement in 2021, and repaying that deal with his first world title.

He was narrowly defeated by Pecco Bagnaia and Ducati in 2022, but by the end of that year it was clear that Yamaha had hit reverse gear. He’s not won since that year’s German Grand Prix, while this year has been especially painful.

After 12 rounds, he’s top Yamaha in the standings, but with a slender haul of just 55 points and a best finish of fifth. Yamaha’s move to a V4 engine for 2026 was always set to take time to yield meaningful results - time that Quartararo simply didn’t have.

“Being honest with you, I’m not really having fun,” Quartararo tells Crash when we sit down with him on Thursday at the British Grand Prix. “And especially because I’m a really competitive guy, and even if I push my maximum, sometimes it can be like in the Sachsenring, where I think it was the second-best race weekend I had. I’m not enjoying seeing people pass me, I can’t overtake, I know in one lap I can be faster.

“So, I need to accept that, but I’m just trying to maximise what I have. Literally, I’m having fun when I see I am fighting for… not getting [results] like last year. Last year maybe I didn’t win, but being there in P5, seeing the guy in front and knowing I can push. Even if last year we didn’t make a lot of overtakes, this year I haven’t overtaken any riders, like proper overtakes and kept the position. So, this is why I’m not enjoying it now.”

It was evident throughout the 2025 season that Quartararo, now 27, was going to be a major player in the 2027 rider market. Yamaha’s move away from its inline-four engine to the V4 was very much seen as the last roll of the dice it had to convince Quartararo to pledge his future once again to the brand.

And at one stage, that may well have panned out.

“I expected it to be much better than now, especially looking at how we made the first test in Barcelona… actually, it was not a great, great test; we were slower than the four inline, but the track conditions were not so good,” he explained.

“We saw that my lap time was not so bad considering it was the first time the bike was on track with me. And I was pretty quick. But the problem was that September, October, November, we didn’t make steps, and actually we have a really, really similar package [now] to the first bike we ever rode.

“When you start a new project, normally the first steps are big, and then it becomes tricky to find the last tenth. But we never really made the big step from the new bike to a bike that is almost one year [old]. So, this is why I think we are really in a difficult situation.”

“We had real, real talks with Suzuki in 2022…”

By the end of the 2025 season, Quartararo was already in deep discussions with brands over his future. He told the media, point blank, when asked if Yamaha was one of those brands: “No”.

“In the Valencia test last year I felt I needed something new,” he tells Crash when asked what the moment was when he realised it was time to leave Yamaha. “And we decided there to step away from Yamaha. Then, to exactly which team I was going, I didn’t know yet. But I knew I wanted to move from teams and I think it was the correct moment.”

Yamaha has landed on its feet with its factory line-up for 2027. It’s signed Jorge Martin, current championship leader, and Ai Ogura, who is having a breakout second year in MotoGP on the Trackhouse Aprilia. But Quartararo is a once-in-a-generation talent for a manufacturer, and losing him to a rival Japanese brand is going to sting for a long time.

However, nobody can say that Quartararo didn’t give Yamaha enough time to prove its worth. And he did so while other manufacturers made some very serious plays for his services.

“Being honest, in 2022, we had a real, real talk with Suzuki,” he said. “Then, of course, two years ago with a different manufacturer. Now I felt it was the right time to step away, to really look for something new. I think it was great for me to move, but of course, looking from 2019 to the middle of 2022, it was completely an amazing period I spent with Yamaha.”

Quartararo on a Suzuki can be filed under one of MotoGP’s great ‘what ifs’, though the brand would pull out of the championship suddenly at the end of the 2022 season. Aprilia is known to have tabled an offer for Quartararo for the 2025 season, but couldn’t match Yamaha’s exceptionally larger counteroffer.

Many have been critical of Quartararo for signing that deal. But hindsight masks the reality of any situation. The Aprilia was a decent package at that point, but was not currently at the stage it is at in 2026. While Yamaha was struggling, two things in particular were important factors in Quartararo’s decision to re-sign: the loyalty that had delivered so much success previously and the technical guidance of Max Bartolini.

Quartararo really bought into what Bartolini was trying to do at Yamaha. But it just hasn’t worked out.

“I think the [first] four years we have spent with Yamaha and the loyalty and the great results we had, when you talk about brands, in the last years you hear a lot about Aprilia and Ducati,” he added. “But historically, since I was young, it was about Yamaha and Honda. So, of course, I really believed in them. But it was time for me now to step away and decide to move on from them.”

How Honda has been able to convince Fabio Quartararo

Trading one Japanese manufacturer for another is a curious decision, on the face of it. A frustration of riders from both camps in recent times has been Honda and Yamaha’s more cautious approach to bike updates relative to their European counterparts.

Honda also hasn’t made the progress in 2026 that was expected after returning to winning ways in 2025 and scoring a handful of dry-weather podiums on pure pace. Joan Mir did finish third at the twice red-flagged Catalan Grand Prix, but was later demoted due to a tyre pressure infringement.

So, with that said, why sign for Honda?

“I think it’s not really a similar situation because there are many, many things on-track and off-track that I can see are different,” Quartararo explained. “But I think that new rules, new bike, I think it’s a gamble, but I’ve seen things. Of course, we had many meetings with teams, and of course with Honda, that made me want to be part of that project, that advancement they are making with the 2027 bike.

“And I felt I had to go there. So, as a kid, I had two teams, and it’s a bit like a kid’s dream. And even if they are having, especially two years ago, tough moments, they have grown a lot, and I think it’s going to be super interesting to see next year’s bike.”

He added: “I think from 2020 until now, European manufacturers have been really quick in decisions and in the amount of risks that they take. I think Yamaha and Honda, what I know in Yamaha, is that we didn’t take enough risks in the development of the bike; we’ve always been too slow.

“And I think this is why European manufacturers have made a big difference. I’ve seen some changes in Honda; they’re getting things much more quickly, and I think that now they know what they need to fight with the other manufacturers.”

Honda has been ahead of the game on its 2027 project. The first prototype of the bike was tested in December last year. It has been hard at work since, though few details have emerged yet about the bike’s capabilities.

But it’s easy to see why Quartararo is so optimistic. Honda made a major statement when it signed former Aprilia technical director Romano Albesiano to the same role at HRC, moving on from its long tradition of Japanese engineers holding that position. It also beefed up its test team by adding Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami to its roster.

And there are still further changes to come, with Davide Brivio expected to take on a senior Honda role next year, doing so having helped guide Trackhouse into a position to win races with both riders and fight for the title at this stage of the season.

Any move, ultimately, is a gamble. Even more so in 2027 with new regulations and a new tyre supplier. But hitting the reset button is sometimes exactly what a rider needs to get back to where they should be. Quartararo will take just one current crew member from Yamaha over with him, but everything else will be brand-new.

Reigning world champion Marc Marquez made a point at Silverstone when asked about 2027 to highlight the combination of Quartararo and Honda as one to watch if the bike is competitive. Even if the past few years have been lean, Quartararo’s talent and potential have not been forgotten by the paddock.

“And this is something that I’m really grateful for,” Quartararo concluded. Because when you are looking from the outside, like in 2022, you can maybe say, ‘Ah, maybe it’s not the best bike, but for sure it’s a good bike’, but when you jump on it, you realise it’s not as good as you thought.

“And actually, something that I feel really happy to hear is the comments of other riders, especially Marc, because we know he’s the fastest, he’s the best - for me - of maybe all time, and yes, I’m really looking forward to this new project and trying to enjoy riding again…”