The powerful signs of disappointment with the 2022 M1 prototype that Fabio Quartararo is sending to Yamaha, forced this Sunday the Japanese house’s MotoGP sports director to try to calm things down, noting that the renewal of the Gallic pilot is the “first priority ” for the Iwata manufacturer.
Last November, after testing the 2022 Yamaha prototype at the Jerez tests, Fabio began to give the first serious warnings that they were not on the right track. “If Yamaha doesn’t go in the direction I’ve asked for, it could affect my future with them,” he said then.
Two long months later, in the pre-season tests in Malaysia and, this weekend, Mandalika , the sensations of El Diablo continue without improving and on Saturday he once again launched a torpedo at the executives of the Japanese brand. “My future is wide open,” he blurted out, shaking Yamaha’s foundations.
This Sunday, at the conclusion of the test held at the new circuit on the Indonesian island of Lombok , the Frenchman’s comments have not improved his perception at all: “It’s disappointing, we have nothing.”
The battery of messages and wake-up calls have made the team react, and Massimo Meregalli , sporting director in the Yamaha race, asked to speak to the microphones of the official page of the championship to make the position of the Iwata house very clear: ” Fabio is our first priority,” he said.
Yamaha has tried to renew Quartararo , whose contract ends at the end of 2022, since he won the championship at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on October 24. However, the Frenchman’s response has always been the same, he wanted to see first the potential of this year’s bike.
“Fabio is our priority, we are in almost daily contact with his representatives, we follow our program and try to find a way to reach an agreement as soon as possible,” Meregalli explained this Sunday.
The executive also hinted that a possible reason that an agreement has not yet been reached is that other manufacturers have ‘touched’ the Frenchman, which would go against the gentlemen’s agreement that the manufacturers agreed to accept at the beginning of the pandemic (2020), in relation to not ‘touching’ the first swords of the rivals so as not to inflame the price of the brokers.
“It is normal that it has received offers, but we are confident and we are doing everything possible to make sure that we keep it for the next two years or more,” said the executive.
Meregalli shares Quartararo ‘s perception regarding the difficulties that the Frenchman could face when trying to retain the crown.
“We expect a very tough season. Everything is really very tight between the drivers. It will be very interesting for those who will watch the races from the sofa, but it will be a little less so for those of us in the box, it will be stressful,” he said.
Although the 2022 engine will be frozen until the end of the year, without the possibility of evolving it, at Yamaha they hope to be able to improve the motorcycle based on the rest of the motorcycle’s parts that can change, such as the chassis, swingarm, aerodynamics, brakes or suspensions, among others. .
“Of course we will try to maximize what we have as much as possible. The basis of the bike is good,” says Meregalli . “We haven’t made a big revolution. As is customary in our factory, we kept our base, we just made updates. And then we started to get to know the bike, so we don’t need to waste time adjusting it at each circuit. It could be an advantage at the beginning, and if we have that advantage, we will try to manage it to extend it as long as possible”, settled the second of Lin Jarvis .
