Yamaha and Quartararo, tensions flare
Looking at the finishing order of the Aragon Grand Prix, it was certainly very surprising to see Fabio Quartararo in 18th and last place. The Frenchman finished 2″ behind Lorenzo Savadori, 24″ behind the best Yamaha (Jack Miller’s) and 51″ behind the winner Marc Marquez.
Certainly a result not in line with the talent of the 2021 world champion: “Soon after the start I was in the slipstream of Marini and Binder, under braking the rear closed and I went wide. Later behind Toprak the front closed and I went wide again, losing more seconds. In the end everything locked up and I ended up in the gravel losing 15 seconds in one lap.”
This frustration pushed Quartararo to rather harsh statements towards Yamaha.
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The controversy
In the statements reported by colleagues from Motorsport France and The Race, the full tension currently in the Yamaha box can be reconstructed.
After the Sprint, Quartararo explained: “For the future I am no longer able to help the team. For personal reasons I do not want to.”
At the end of the race, the Frenchman went into details: “To clarify… I don’t know if I can say it but I will say it anyway: I wanted to do the tests in Austria. But Yamaha does not want me to ride with Pirelli. I wanted to do something, but they don’t allow me.”
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Hence Quartararo’s drastic decision for the near future: “This weekend I acted more as a tester than anything else. I tested the chassis 3 times, but it didn’t work. We also had a new linkage that brought no improvements. I will stop trying a hundred things in one weekend.”
Fabio Quartararo has already formalized the agreement that will take him to official Honda for 2027 and 2028.
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