Quartararo puts pressure on Yamaha: "I don't have time anymore"

While the world championship MotoGP arrives this weekend at the mid-season, with the eleventh meeting of the year on the Sachsenring turnstile, fabio quartararo draws a necessarily mixed assessment of this start to the campaign. While the Frenchman started four times from pole position, he also had to deal with mechanical problems and races without, where the pace of his Yamaha YZR-M1 was absent.

"The first three races of the season were a disaster, clearly", he said bluntly during a interview for the official MotoGP website. "We then raised our game with pole positions and a podium finish. There were some very good races, with pace. At Le Mans and Silverstone, we had some issues. It's a bittersweet first half of the season, you could say."

Now 26, the 2021 world champion is far from reaching his sell-by date. However, now in his fourth year without a title, and especially a fourth year subjected to the rule of the dominant Ducati team, the Nice native believes he already has insufficient time left to wait for a winning project.

Under contract with Yamaha until 2026, the Frenchman has now made it clear that he would seek a move on if the next version of the YZR-M1 isn't up to scratch. This is maximum pressure being put on his team, particularly Max Bartolini, his new technical director. The Italian is cited by Quartararo as the person who convinced him to stay with a project he could have easily left at the end of last season.

“I need to enjoy myself and feel the joy of being at the front. That’s really what I need right now, and that’s why I’m putting a lot of pressure on Yamaha. I don’t have time anymore, I need a project capable of winning now. It’s something very important for me, for my mental health, and we’ll see what the new project will bring. It’s very important for me that we can compete for victories next year. Max has a lot of pressure on him. If I stayed with Yamaha for this year and the next, the brand can really thank him. He’s really the one who made me change my mind, but he also knows that he has to make it work before next year!”

Lots of hope for the V4

While the Iwata brand has long used a very "Japanese" operation, it is opening up for the first time to a foreign engineer, formerly from Ducati. The first effects of this new collaboration are being felt with the testing of a new V-four engine. This configuration has become the standard in MotoGP over the years, and Yamaha has so far cultivated the difference, having always trusted its inline-four layout. Although he has not yet been able to test this new machine, Fabio Quartararo has high hopes for this new direction.

“Honestly, we’re still far from what we need. Normally, we’ll have a completely new bike next year, with a V4 engine. I don’t know if we’ll start from scratch or not, but I needed a change. The M1 has reached its limits and now we have to start with a new project. I want to see the facts, and so far it hasn’t. The feedback is positive, of course, but I’m a bit like all riders, as long as I’m not on the bike… I want to feel how it’s going and what the bike’s potential is. I think we’ll be able to test the bike in mid-September, we should have one or two days before the Valencia tests.”

The tests following the final round of the season will therefore be decisive, and there is no doubt that a good part of the paddock will be watching the body language of the number 20 closely... If the new engine does not give satisfaction, some team managers will not hesitate to pick up the phone, even a few weeks before Christmas!

ALSO READ > Jorge Martín shares his feelings after his test in Barcelona: "After four laps, I felt like I had done a complete race"