Paolo Pavesio disagrees with Lin Jarvis about Fabio Quartararo’s importance to the Yamaha MotoGP team

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Paolo Pavesio only replaced Lin Jarvis as the boss of the Yamaha MotoGP team at the start of this year, but Fabio Quartararo has immediately given him a tenure-defining dilemma.

Quartararo is out of contract at the end of 2026, and as he’s made clear in the press, he’s strongly considering a move away from Yamaha. On paper, this could be disastrous.

The Frenchman has bagged five pole positions this year on what is statistically the slowest bike on the grid. He’s also responsible for both the team’s podiums.

Quartararo has scored 182 points this season, which puts him ninth in the championship. Between them, the other three full-time riders have managed 167.

Paolo Pavesio thinks Yamaha’s ‘project’ is more important than Fabio Quartararo

Jarvis founded the Yamaha factory team in 1999 and was in charge for more than a quarter of a century. One of the biggest calls he made in that time was signing Quartararo to replace the legendary Valentino Rossi – his opinion ‘heavily’ influenced the decision of the Japanese bosses.

And one of Jarvis’ final acts was to tie Quartararo down to his latest contract. According to Motorsport Espana, Pavesio is more ‘pragmatic’ than his predecessor.

While he would like to ‘extend the partnership’ until at least the end of 2028 – Yamaha have made a ‘colossal’ offer to Quartararo already – he feels ‘medium and long-term project’ supersedes any individual.

In effect, Pavesio, who has a background in marketing, thinks nobody is bigger than the team. Jarvis remains an ‘external consultant’ for Yamaha but is unlikely to play a significant role in the 2027 rider line-up decision.

Fabio Quartararo is sending a message to Yamaha with choice of clothes in the paddock

Quartararo ‘would love’ to stay at Yamaha, where he feels ‘at home’. The team has been built around him.

But the 2021 world champion feels he’s wasting valuable years of his career on a bike that’s not good enough to fight for regular wins. In the hope of inspiring an improvement, Quartararo has been putting pressure on the team directly and indirectly.

Indeed, he’s often made a deliberate choice not to wear ‘team uniform’ when he walks around the paddock, a sign that he’s questioning his commitment.

Some ‘within the Iwata factory’ say Quartararo has changed. Previously ‘cheerful’, he’s now ‘subdued and apathetic’, which hasn’t ‘gone down well’ in the offices.

Certain team executives are arguing that his ‘poisoned barbs’ are only ‘hurting’ the morale of team staff, so it’s not necessarily a case of keeping him at all costs.