Marco Bezzecchi
Fabio Quartararo admits that he has now changed his “goals” at Yamaha for the 2026 season, with the 2021 MotoGP champion in the final year of his contract at the team.
The 26-year-old has been the leader of the Yamaha team since he replaced Valentino Rossi in the factory garage in 2021. Quartararo moved into the Iwata outfit’s works team after two years at Petronas SRT, and he beat Francesco Bagnaia for the title in his first year at Yamaha.
Yamaha moved to lock Quartararo down with new contracts in June 2022 and April 2024, as the Japanese squad tied their lead rider up. Yamaha made Quartararo the highest-paid rider on the grid at £10m per season with his contract keeping him in Iwata through 2026, as well.
But questions regarding Quartararo’s presence at Yamaha beyond 2026 are rife before the new season. Yamaha dream of pairing Quartararo with Toprak Razgatlioglu for 2027, but the Frenchman is not currently prepared to recommit to the team for the 850cc regulations era.
Is Yamaha’s new MotoGP livery a hit or a miss?
Fabio Quartararo admits his ‘goal’ is no longer to bring Yamaha back to the top
Quartararo has made it clear that the only way that Yamaha can convince him to sign a new contract will be how he feels riding their new V4 M1. Yamaha’s bike for the 2026 season has many similarities to a Ducati, with the brand now using a V4 engine instead of an inline four.
READ MORE: The best moments of Fabio Quartararo’s MotoGP career
But Quartararo has also made a ruthless change prior to the 2026 season, as he is no longer prioritising helping Yamaha return to the top of MotoGP and has put his results ahead of the team’s. Yamaha and Quartararo last won a Grand Prix when he won the German GP in 2022.
Quartararo told the MotoGP website: “The only one who can convince me [to stay] is for me to jump on the bike and feel that I’m fast and that I’m enjoying [it].
“When I signed for this year and next, my goal was to bring back some really good results to Yamaha. But, right now, I want to look for myself, for my personal future and goals.”
Yamaha’s plight since 2022 has left Fabio Quartararo to reconsider his future
Who will be Yamaha’s top rider in the 2026 MotoGP season?
Quartararo finished second to Ducati ace Bagnaia in the 2022 MotoGP riders’ championship by 17 points, after taking three Grand Prix victories aboard his Yamaha that year. But Ducati then became the dominant force, and Yamaha have so far failed to build a competitive bike.
The deficiencies of the M1 compared to the Desmosedici, in particular, even saw Quartararo fail to score a single Grand Prix podium – let alone a race win – in 2024. The Nice native took one Grand Prix podium in 2025 with P2 during the Spanish GP, for which he also sealed pole.
Quartararo will hope Yamaha’s new V4 engine in 2026 can combat the problems he faced in 2025 that meant his five pole positions in total ultimately did not lead to anything more. He was often a sitting duck along the straights to his V4-engined rivals thanks to his inline four.
Receive racing news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
