‘I’d be furious’ - Fabio Quartararo weighs in on Pecco Bagnaia’s MotoGP woes
Fabio Quartararo has given his opinion on Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati struggles
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo says he would be “furious” if he was being beaten by his MotoGP team-mate regularly, in response to Pecco Bagnaia’s ongoing struggles.
Double MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia comes to the Austrian Grand Prix off the back of three successive Sunday DNFs, as he continues to battle rear grip problems on his Ducati.
His struggles come as team-mate Marc Marquez won his fifth race of the season despite not being fully fit, and now leads the championship.
At Misano, Bagnaia was caught on DAZN cameras claiming Ducati “won’t let me” try a more standard bike set-up.
Bagnaia slammed DAZN for airing this clip and claims his words were taken out of context.
Asked if he sees any similarities between his own struggles at Yamaha and Bagnaia’s this year, Fabio Quartararo replied: “No, because Marc is winning. If Alex [Rins], Jack [Miller] or Toprak [Razgatlioglu] was winning, I would be, myself, in a bad situation.
“But it depends on many things.
“At the end, I don’t the relationship between Pecco and Ducati, how they are.
“But in my personal - not opinion - position, if I was there and my team-mate is winning, I would be furious and trying to understand why I wasn’t able to do it.”
Quartararo says he didn’t see the DAZN clip, but noted that he takes any grievances he has directly to Yamaha.
“First, I didn’t see the conversation, because when I’m at home I try to avoid everything related to motorcycles,” he added.
“And, at the end, if I try to say some really private things, I don’t really say them to other riders.
“I say them to my people, but I don’t think it’s really private. If I need to say something for myself to be better, I say it directly to my crew chief or to the people of Yamaha.
“I don’t need to hide. So, then of course, if it’s a pretty standard conversation.
“There is always someone, because they prefer the bad moments for the journalists, rather than the good moments.”
Quartararo has let his frustrations boil over in the press recently, after he told French media he would no longer help Yamaha develop its bike as it was not letting him test Pirelli tyres on Monday in Austria.
He has since accepted that his comments could have been better thought through.
