Yamaha boss says Fabio Quartararo relationship has become “colder”
Fabio Quartararo’s relationship with Yamaha management has become strained in 2026
Yamaha MotoGP team boss Massimo Meregalli admits his relationship with Fabio Quartararo has become “a little colder” this year.
Fabio Quartararo started the new season having already signed a deal to join Honda for the 2027 campaign.
With Yamaha struggling to advance up the order wth its V4 bike, 2021 world champion Quartararo has done little to hide his frustrations.
At the Aragon Grand Prix, he told the media that he would no longer be developing anything for Yamaha’s 2027 bike after it refused to let him test Pirelli tyres after the Austrian Grand Prix.
This flashpoint was calmed after clear-the-air talks after Aragon, with Quartararo running development parts at the Red Bull Ring.
As well as Quartararo, Yamaha’s entire line-up, save for Toprak Razgatlioglu, is changing in 2027, with Alex Rins and Jack Miller leaving MotoGP.
Commenting on the dynamics within Yamaha now, Meregalli told Motorsport’s Italian edition: “Of course, it’s not like it was at the beginning. It’s normal.
“We’re truly in a working environment, and we’re all professionals. We just keep working professionally.
“Fortunately, the atmosphere in the garage between everyone - the mechanics and the engineers - is good.
“Perhaps the relationship with the riders as a whole has become a little colder than before.”
On the Aragon fallout, Meregalli added: “Fabio finally understood the impact of his words after Aragon.
“When riders are disappointed or frustrated, sometimes they say things they perhaps don’t mean, or perhaps they even mean them.”
Yamaha will treat Quartararo like Jorge Lorenzo
Meregalli has vowed that Yamaha will continue to support Quartararo to the end of the campaign, citing the example of Jorge Lorenzo when he left the team in 2026.
“We’ll support him [Quartararo] until the end of the season,” he said.
“Whatever we have to give him, he’ll get. We did this in the past with Jorge Lorenzo, too.
“We continued to develop his bike right up until the last grand prix of the season.
“That’s how a team works, in my opinion.”
