Why Fabio Quartararo is poised for a return to the front in MotoGP 2025
The 2025 season is a big one for Yamaha as it looks to end its win drought. Leading that charge is a world champion desperate to fulfil his potential, writes Lewis Duncan
Money is a tempting factor for any racer. Yamaha knew at the start of last year that it was facing the prospect of losing its superstar rider Fabio Quartararo as it once again failed to give him the bike he needed to add double up his 2021 MotoGP world title.
Aprilia came knocking but didn’t have the funds. Yamaha dug deep, to the tune of €12 million per season to the end of 2026, and pen was quickly put to paper. It was one of two major future-proofing moments for outgoing factory team boss Lin Jarvis; the other being signing Pramac to become its official satellite partner.
While turning down a big pay day is no easy task, Quartararo locked himself into the grind of getting Yamaha back to where it needs to be. That was something easier to convince to him when the Japanese marque brought Gigi Dall’Igna’s former right-hand man Max Bartolini over from Ducati to become technical director.
From the engineering side, Bartolini has been able to get the stubbornness of Yamaha’s Japanese way of working to ease up. Throughout 2024 the M1 frequently had new items thrown at it every test and race weekend as it made good use of its concessions.
His biggest breakthrough, on the technical side at least, has been getting Yamaha to commit to a V4 project - though no timeline for when it will make its track debut has been given. Yamaha has always used inline-four configuration engines in the modern era, but is now the only one.
While this fits in with Yamaha’s push to find more engine power, Bartolini told Crash.net's Peter McLaren last winter that isn’t really the end goal: “With the V4, everybody thinks about the engine itself. But I think the biggest advantage is from the layout of the bike, more than from the engine.
In terms of pure power, honestly, listening to our engine department, it shouldn’t be a big difference. “But there are some ways to manage the layout of the bike that will be a little bit easier with the V4.”
Yamaha’s biggest weakness with its M1 is a lack of rear grip, which it has battled for a number of years, and has contributed to the bike losing the famed agility that made Quartararo such a potent threat from the moment he stepped onto the Yamaha in 2019 as a rookie.
But these were things that made small improvements as the 2024 campaign went on, with Quartararo scoring the marque’s best result of the year at the Malaysian Grand Prix in sixth. As winter testing begins, Yamaha will be looking to pick up from where it left off.
The mountain it has to climb is steep. Yamaha was fourth out five in the constructors’ standings last year with 124 points - some 598 behind Ducati and 178 behind third-placed Aprilia. Quartararo was the leading light for Yamaha’s two-bike effort in 13th on just 113 points - his smallest championship haul of his career - while team-mate Alex Rins was 18th in a first year on the M1 where he was still plagued by injury.
As Rins pointed out at Yamaha’s launch event on Friday: “It’s so difficult to say to you that we are going to fight for the victory from the first race, because it’s not true.”
Quartararo, often in recent season a figure of frustration as Yamaha repeatedly failed to give him what he needed, has certainly mellowed out over the last year. He’s realised that the only way he’ll win again on the Yamaha is to put in the work, and noted at the launch that he has no expectations set for the year ahead other than starting the campaign as he ended the last must be the target.
“I think that the progression at the end of the year, especially from the middle to the end of the year, was good,” he told Crash.net at Yamaha’s launch event. “We found a way, but now of course finding a way is one thing but now we need to find how to go faster by improving the grip, which is so important, the power, electronics, aero. This is one of the most important things.”
If that is the case, then Yamaha from the off should be a consistent top 10 challenger. The removal of two Ducatis from the grid as Pramac joins the Yamaha fold will make that ever so slightly easier.
Through Yamaha’s darker days, Quartararo has remained its shining light. Internal turmoil between management and Maverick Vinales didn’t throw him off his course to the title in 2021, while he clung on until the final round of the 2022 campaign despite a clear machinery disadvantage to Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.
While Quartararo was winning races and fighting for the championship that year, the next-best Yamaha was team-mate Franco Morbidelli in 19th. Andrea Dovizioso only made it to the San Marino GP before retiring amid a lacklustre comeback with RNF Racing.
In 2023, Quartararo was the only Yamaha able to get to the podium and was 70 points clear of the next-best of the marque’s representatives in the standings. Though Rins wasn’t always at his best, Quartararo beat him in grands prix 12-5, outqualified him 14-4 and was the only Yamaha to score points in sprint races.
Most racers will say they always gave their 100% even during difficult times. Quartararo is one of the few who you can genuinely believe does. He’s a superstar; he knows he’s a superstar. But, arguably the biggest influence Bartolini has had on Yamaha, is how he has effectively become something of a head coach for Quartararo - easing his fears and reassuring him, with the Frenchman’s help, that the drought will end.
Where once Quartararo would be upset when speaking to the media if something was brought to the bike that didn’t work, his viewpoint is completely different.
“I think we have to start from the 2024 base in the test and then check if it’s better,” he added. “It doesn’t mean if it’s new it’s better. So, this is something important we need to keep in mind.”
Quartararo spent most of the first half of last year publicly pushing Yamaha to find itself a satellite team. The Marc Marquez powerplay to get himself a factory Ducati team seat, turning down a Pramac move, was fortuitous for Yamaha. The cream of the satellite crop for a number of years, Pramac propelled Jorge Martin - now at Aprilia - to the riders’ title last season.
Effectively a Ducati factory team with different stickers for a long time before 2025, Yamaha has the right partner to help speed up bike development. Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira are two experienced pairs of hands to help in this quest.
What Yamaha has been doing in terms of development coupled with Quartararo’s obvious talents has clearly not gone unnoticed. Francesco Bagnaia named the Frenchman as someone who could be a frontrunner in 2025, likewise Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola.
What Quartararo has been able to consistently do on the Yamaha over the last two seasons as it’s slipped down the grid has been quietly impressive. If Yamaha carries on the trajectory it’s currently going, Quartararo will soon start making a lot of noice again in the MotoGP landscape…
Quotes provided by Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren
