The MotoGP World Championship has just begun, but there is already a lot of talk about the rider market. One of the most talked about names is undoubtedly that of Fabio Quartararo, because a rider who was world champion in 2021 and fought for the title until the last race in 2022 cannot afford to continue not winning for too long .
And at this moment Yamaha does not seem able to make the material available to him for the positions he deserves, as certified by the inaugural race in Qatar, which ended in 11th place and with a delay of over 17″ compared to the winner Pecco Bagnaia “El Diablo” has never hidden the fact that he has already had contacts with other brands, but for the moment his future is a thought that he manages to keep at a distance when he gets on his M1.
“I'm not thinking about contracts. Basically… of course, as you know, we've already had talks with some brands. But it's not a distraction for me. These are things I don't think about when I'm on the bike. But I know what's going on. on the table and it's something that allows me to think that I'm not a bad rider. For me the bad is when I was in Moto2 and I had nowhere to go the following year. Then it was right to worry. But in the position I find myself in now, I don't have to worry,” said Quartararo upon his arrival in Portimao, where the Portuguese Grand Prix is taking place this weekend.
However, he won't wait too long to make a decision on what to do in 2025: “Not long, I don't want to wait months. We've already talked a lot and I think I know something about what's on the market. I already know what the plans, but I'll have to take some time to decide.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo credit: Yamaha
When he was then asked if Yamaha should already take his departure for granted when his contract expires at the end of the season, the Frenchman reiterated that he appreciated the change in approach that the Iwata manufacturer has shown in this first glimpse of 2024.
“The gap from the others has increased, but honestly in Qatar we were still trying a lot of things. We're not ready yet. Even last year things weren't going well, but we didn't have any solutions to try. The mentality changed totally even during the race weekend, we changed a lot of things in Qatar and I think that's positive. At the moment, finishing tenth or eleventh is the same thing, but if I can help the team take steps forward to fight for the top 5, I prefer to do many many things over the weekend.”
Fabio praised several times the great feeling he had established with the front of the 2021 M1, the one that had led him to the title, but he had to admit that the current bike is faster. If anything, the problem is another at the moment.
“We would be much further away with that bike. At the moment this is the best bike I have ever ridden and you can see from the lap times that they are much faster than 2021. But the fact is that other brands have made great strides , while we improved perhaps by seven tenths compared to 2021. The others instead by more than a second. So, now we are the ones who have to make giant steps compared to the others”, he concluded.
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