Fabio Quartararo joined MotoGP with Yamaha in 2019 and became world champion with the M1 in 2021, but has since suffered due to the dominance of European manufacturers. The Frenchman is now starting his seventh season with the Japanese brand with the clear ambition of getting it back on top.
What do you expect from the 2025 season?
Improvement. More than in terms of results, I expect to see the working methods put in place bear fruit. Before thinking about getting back to the front of the grid, it would be good not to have to wonder every weekend whether we'll be able to get through to Q2 or not. We need to be able to be in the top ten from Friday onwards.
What has been put in place to meet your expectations?
When I renewed my contract with Yamaha, there were long discussions because I was asking for a lot of things: new people, additional engineers, a satellite team, a new project... This is the first time this year that everything has finally come together. Yamaha has really made huge efforts to catch up, and I'm happy to see all this, even if, of course, we're going to have to be patient to reap the rewards. Honestly, I can see that since Max (Bartolini) arrived, attitudes are changing. Where it used to take a month a year to get something, now we get it in a fortnight. Nowadays, we manage to use new parts without them having been validated and revalidated, even if there is only one available. And when something doesn't work, we put it aside and move on. Before, we had to keep trying and trying things when we knew full well that it was leading nowhere. I'm not going to say that the Japanese now have a European mentality, but they are really starting to get there. In any case, they have clearly opened up to new methods.
When you have fought for victory as you have done, how do you live with finding yourself far from the podium, almost anonymous? How do you overcome it?
It's a difficult situation to live in. There are many complicated moments... Performance comes from the rider, but also from the bike and the team. When you know that you are capable of fighting for victory, or at least the podium, and that your limit is the machine, it's hard to accept. You blame everyone. So when it happens to me, I think about 2019, and I tell myself that if Yamaha hadn't given me the chance to start in MotoGP, I might never have had that opportunity. It's something that completely changed my life. I've also learned to control my anger and frustration... Since last year, I've been able to set myself reasonable goals that correspond to what the bike allows at the time. This helps me to communicate better information to the team. I saw during the Sepang tests that I had progressed at this level. By being calmer, my comments are more precise and the engineers have had confirmation of this by superimposing them with their data. Honestly, I have never been as clear and precise as during the tests this winter. Changing my methods has also helped me a lot. We test something, if it's OK, it's OK, if it's not OK, we remove it and move on to something else. We have really become more efficient, and it's also a way of being positive even if the results are not yet up to what we are aiming for. I have two seasons ahead of me with Yamaha, perhaps the two most important of my career, and I really want to help them get back to the top spot. It's a real motivation. After that, I won't have any more time to waste and I'll go where it's best for me.
What has changed the most since 2019 and your debut in MotoGP?
The power struggle between Ducati and the Japanese manufacturers. When I arrived, the Italians were starting to reap the rewards of their innovation work. The winglets, the electronics, the ride height devices... And when they started to win, they continued to develop their bike with new ideas. They pushed and pushed... At Yamaha, after my title in 2021, everyone said to themselves that we had a very good bike and that we didn't need to modify it too much. When you look at the bikes from 2019 and those of today... It's a whole new world.
