Quartararo and Yamaha heading for a showdown: "I don't have time to waste"

Quartararo has reiterated his ambitions for the 2026 MotoGP season: the message to Yamaha has come through loud and clear.

In recent days, the Monster Energy Yamaha team was unveiled, certainly one of the most anticipated of the upcoming MotoGP championship. The historic choice to race with an M1 equipped with a V4 engine sparks great curiosity, and everyone is eager to see whether the 2026 prototype will be more competitive than the 2025 version, which has an inline-four engine. One of the most eager is Fabio Quartararo, who, after becoming the 2021 world champion and 2022 runner-up, has not managed to consistently fight for the very top positions. Between sprint races and full-length Grands Prix, just seven podiums in the past three years. Far too little for someone who knows he’s a title-caliber rider with the right machinery.

Like the vast majority of the MotoGP grid, his contract expires at the end of 2026, and therefore he will carefully evaluate how to move with an eye on 2027. The first tests and the opening Grands Prix will be crucial to understanding whether to give Yamaha another chance or to seek a change of scenery, even giving up money just to have a winning bike. Today we’d be more inclined to bet on a departure.

In a MotoGP documentary titled Fabio Quartararo: Road to Redemption, the French rider reiterated his goals for 2026 and for the future more generally: "I’ve spent my entire MotoGP career with Yamaha and have a special relationship with the brand, so for me it’s personal to bring Yamaha back to the top. I’m a winner, I want to win and fight for the best positions. I have no time to waste; if we want to get back to the top, we must not waste a single week, not a single day. We have to work hard."

Quartararo is very attached to Yamaha, but right now he needs answers that meet his need to be competitive at every Grand Prix. Certainly, the presence of Massimo Bartolini as technical director is a factor that can make the difference, given his vast experience with Ducati between 2004 and 2024: "I’ve had a strong connection with Max from day one, — the rider explains — I drove for 7 hours to meet him for 3 hours. He answered everything I wanted to know and took me from not believing in the project to believing in it. He told me we wouldn’t be back at the front immediately, that it would take a long time, because the Japanese mentality is much slower than the Italian one. Now we’re working in a completely different way; I’d never seen it before."

The Frenchman is very clear about what would convince him to commit to the Yamaha MotoGP project again: "I need results fairly soon. The only thing that can convince me is getting on the bike, feeling that I’m fast and that I’m having fun. When I signed, I wanted to bring good results back to Yamaha, but now I want to think about myself, my future, and my goals."

His desire for the future is to get back to fighting for podiums, wins, and titles. If Yamaha doesn’t inspire enough confidence, he will sign with another manufacturer. It’s worth remembering that in 2027 there will be new technical regulations and a new tire supplier (Pirelli), so no one can be guaranteed to have the best package: you’ll need to make a bet, and take risks. Someone like Quartararo will have no problem finding a good seat; time will tell whether his choice was right or not.