Marco Bezzecchi
Yamaha are three weekends away from being able to turn their back on their current bike and put their full effort and attention into the V4 engine.
Despite sitting just ninth in the MotoGP standings, superstar rider Fabio Quartararo has been able to achieve five pole positions in 2025. On a Sunday, he has fallen apart, though. His only real chance to win was in Silverstone, before a ride height device failure stripped him of the opportunity.
Pressure is on Yamaha to deliver improvements, otherwise, they risk losing one of their few bright sparks heading into 2027. Quartararo’s loyalty to them has been admirable, but after years of waiting, he will expect to see some meaningful results soon.
Yamaha have made a ‘colossal offer’ to Quartararo to stay with them beyond 2026, but there’s no point in committing to a bike that could see his prime years wasted. Quartararo has a perfect attribute for his team to utilise, as he drives good data through their systems, but something still needs to change.
READ MORE: Fabio Quartararo knows what team he ideally ‘wants’ to race for in the 2027 MotoGP season
Fabio Quartararo’s ‘pressure’ has forced Yamaha to hand Augusto Fernandez wildcard entry in Malaysia
Quartararo thinks he deserves a factory team and didn’t like the idea of joining a satellite team, like Marc Marquez did with Gresini in 2024, when asked about the prospect a few weeks ago. Going to somewhere like VR46 would make him an instant contender on a Ducati bike, though.
Worryingly for his current team, Quartararo thinks Yamaha are behind with their development of the V4 engine, and it’s part of the reason why he continues to push them so hard to find and make improvements. He doesn’t want another season competing in the midfield.
Quartararo could dethrone Marquez if he had the right bike beneath him, but it has already been three years since he had a machine capable of winning races. At the age of 26, there’s only so much more he can take before being forced to pull the trigger.
According to the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com, Quartararo’s ‘constant pressure’ on Yamaha has led them to hand Augusto Fernandez a wildcard entry with the V4 engine for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
With more laps comes extra data and optimisation, helping the manufacturer get ahead of the game and landing them in a better spot for the start of the 2026 season.
READ MORE: Michael Laverty ‘underwhelmed’ by what he’s heard Fabio Quartararo say about Yamaha’s V4 MotoGP bike
How Fabio Quartararo has proven that he’s still a top-tier MotoGP talent in 2025
Remarkably, on a Yamaha bike which has been troublesome to say the least, Quartararo has managed to finish every race that he has seen the finish line in, inside the points.
He retired three times on the bounce in the middle of the campaign, as he suffered a lot of bad luck at a time when his bike looked as potent as it had all season.
The performance of teammate Alex Rins, who has less than half the points, shows exactly why Quartararo deserves lots of applause.
New Yamaha satellite team Pramac have struggled too, and both of their riders have scraped by in 2025, too. It’s why they have gone from winning a riders’ title, to being being of the teams’ standings within a year.
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