Yamaha hits back at Quartararo’s criticism and attitude

Following Fabio Quartararo’s criticism and his stated intention to stop assisting Yamaha in MotoGP, the manufacturer has hit back by calling the Frenchman to order over his behaviour.

The impending split between Quartararo and Yamaha in MotoGP has arguably never seemed as long and drawn-out as it has since the Aragon weekend. Aside from a notably poor performance by Quartararo, tensions between the two parties have been laid bare in public, further eroding the remaining bond between the rider and the manufacturer who have worked together for the last eight years.

Complaining at the start of the weekend that he was being treated like a “test rider” with parts he felt offered little benefit, Quartararo made no secret of his lack of motivation ahead of his departure from the team in three months’ time. Above all, he emphasised that he did not wish to help Yamaha with its development of the 2027 bike, citing “personal reasons” that he eventually clarified.

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway: I wanted to take part in the tests in Austria. But unfortunately, Yamaha doesn’t want me to ride with the Pirelli tyres,” Quartararo explained over the weekend, adding that he had “no desire to develop the bike for the 2027 riders”.

He went on to emphasise this after finishing last in Sunday’s race: “I knew this weekend would be difficult. I didn’t take anything positive from it. So, I’m going to try to understand what went wrong, but I’ll stop trying 100 different things in a single weekend.”

The current difficulties are bringing to the fore a lingering issue that has never really been resolved, notably the decision to switch to the V4 engine, which the manufacturer wanted to introduce as early as 2026, apparently against the rider’s wishes.

“The relationship had already become a bit complicated before that, particularly because of the discussions we’d had about which bike to use in 2026,” explained Quartararo, as quoted by L’Equipe. “For me, the choice was clear: we had to stick with the inline-four. Yamaha ultimately decided to go ahead with the V4. That was difficult to accept.”

Yamaha’s response

Whatever the internal handling of this dispute may have been, it is clear today that a turning point has been reached in the way the rider and his manufacturer manage to work together. And the lack of motivation displayed by Quartararo in Spain was not particularly well received by the upper management.

Paolo Pavesio, executive director of Yamaha Motor Racing, highlighted the Frenchman’s lack of “objectivity” while defending the effectiveness of the new parts offered to him.

“Fabio regularly complains that we’re not developing the bike, and when we ask him to test new parts, he criticises us for it, saying he loses his way,” the Italian told L’Equipe. “He lacks a bit of objectivity. Of course, we’re not at the level we’d like to be. But like our rivals, we’re trying to move forward.”

As for the test due to take place in two weeks at the Red Bull Ring, which will be used to develop future tyres, Massimo Meregalli pointed out that Yamaha has not treated Quartararo any differently from the other riders set to move from their current team.

“We’ll be using [Toprak] Razgatlioglu and most certainly [Izan] Guevara for the test in Austria because they’ll be with us next year,” the Yamaha factory team director told L’Equipe, referring to Pramac’s current rookie and the team’s new signing for 2027.

“All the manufacturers [who are parting ways with their riders] have taken this decision. [Jorge] Martin and [Ai] Ogura won’t be testing the Aprilia, Bagnaia won’t be testing the Ducati, Acosta won’t be testing the KTM, and we won’t be letting [Jack] Miller test our 850cc either…”

Meregalli then made his message to Quartararo clear by holding up Miller as an example: “Fabio should follow Jack’s example – he always gives his all and makes sure that, even if things get tough, everyone stays in good spirits.”

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– The Autosport.com Team