Fabio Quartararo: Test team boost if no satellite Yamahas in 2025?

Fabio Quartararo says it would not be a ‘disaster’ if Yamaha cannot secure a satellite team for the 2025 MotoGP season.

But it would mean the factory needs to pour resources into its factory test team to compensate.

Yamaha, the only manufacturer with just two machines on the grid, has been pushing hard to tempt either VR46 or Pramac away from Ducati.

But VR46 has made clear its preference is to keep the more competitive Desmosedicis, while the surprise Pramac speculation has also cooled.

“A disaster? No,” Quartararo said if there is no satellite Yamaha team in 2025. “But I think it will be the moment to invest even more in the test team. 

"I think to have another rider [alongside Cal Crutchlow], to have more bikes, more people working in there.

“Of course, it's always better to have a satellite team, but… Already the step we made from last year to this year [with the race team] is amazing [and maybe] we have to make the step also for the test team.”

Following a recent private test at Mugello, Quartararo and team-mate Alex Rins will have new aero for this weekend's Barcelona round.

But the test also helped pinpoint how the M1 needs to improve in the longer term.

“[The Mugello test] was great because we could analyse quite well where is the main priority to improve for us, from now until the end of the season,” Quartararo said.

“We don't know how we're going to improve it, but we know where it is.

“And then we used the new aero package that was better for Cal, better for me and better for Alex. So we will use it during this [Catalunya] weekend.”

The new aero offered: “A little bit of help on the turning. Not a big difference, but whatever we can slightly improve, we do. And it was slightly better in the amount of lean angle we could have.”

The area of future improvement seems based around the engine, with Quartararo revealing he has already raced with a revised spec, albeit only lightly tweaked.

“I think in Jerez race we were with a 'new engine'. But when we say 'new engine' at this moment it’s [a small difference]… Because you cannot really totally change an engine. But we are working also for this year to try to improve it.

“The engine [now] is fast,” Quartararo added. “I never really complained this year about the power. But we used to have agility and a lot of turning with the bike and no top speed.

“Now we have the top speed, but we don't have the agility and the turning of the past. So right now the goal number one is to find back this agility and the turning we used to have.

“That's why I think Mugello test was great because we tested several bikes and we saw where - exactly where, we don't know - but we know we have to work a lot in the engine.”