Marco Bezzecchi
Fabio Quartararo will leave Yamaha when his contract expires at the end of the 2026 season, and has even reached an agreement to join the team’s Japanese rival Honda.
Yamaha had retained a fading hope that Quartararo would agree to sign a new contract with the Iwata crew. The 2021 MotoGP champion is the figurehead of the Yamaha project, but he has sought to jump ship before racing their new V4-engined YZR-M1 that will debut in 2026.
The 26-year-old scored more points than Yamaha’s other factory-contracted pilots together in 2025, during what proved to be the last hurrah for their inline four engine. Quartararo led the way on 201 points ahead of Jack Miller on 79, Alex Rins on 68 and Miguel Oliveira on 43.
Yet Quartararo’s wait for another Grand Prix win stretching to 72 races has seen him run out of patience with Yamaha. He took the Iwata natives’ most recent Grand Prix win in Germany in 2022, at which point the Nice native even led the 2022 riders’ championship by 34 points.
Who do you want as Jorge Martin’s 2027 Yamaha teammate?
Fabio Quartararo’s ‘frustration’ with Paolo Pavesio helped convince him to join Honda
Quartararo wanted to help Yamaha return to the top of MotoGP, but he admitted at the end of 2025 that his “goals” had changed to focus on his own results. And Motorsport.com now reports that Quartararo has agreed to join Honda on a two-year contract from 2027, as well.
READ MORE: The best moments of Fabio Quartararo’s MotoGP career
Yamaha’s inability to provide Quartararo with a race-winning bike has dwarfed them making him the highest-paid rider in MotoGP when he last signed a new contract in April 2024. Also, his ‘frustration’ has not been helped by Paolo Pavesio replacing Lin Jarvis at Yamaha’s helm.
Pavesio took over as the managing director of Yamaha’s motorsport division in January 2025 and he adopted a ‘different approach’ to how Jarvis managed rider relations. Quartararo has not liked Pavesio’s approach, and he revealed they were barely speaking by the end of 2025.
“I don’t speak much with Paolo,” Quartararo told Motorsport.com in Australia. “The people I’m interested in are the ones in the garage. I speak more with the engineers than with him.”
Fabio Quartararo’s Honda move is not a great vote of confidence in Yamaha’s 850cc bike
Who will be the next ‘Fantastic Four’?
Quartararo is taking a risk by agreeing to join Honda in 2027, as he would be by joining any team ahead of the regulation changes. LCR rider Johann Zarco won the 2025 French Grand Prix at Le Mans to secure Honda their only feature race victory through the past 59 rounds.
Honda are still to decide who Quartararo will partner with in Tokyo next season, as Joan Mir and Luca Marini are both out of contract at the end of the 2026 MotoGP season. Honda will give Mir and Marini a chance to earn new contracts ahead of the 850cc regulations in 2027.
It remains to be seen if Yamaha will let Quartararo play any further role in the development of their bike for the 850cc regulations. The Frenchman’s decision to sign for Honda ahead of the new rules also does not serve as a massive vote of confidence in Yamaha’s 2027 project.
But Jorge Martin seems to believe in what Yamaha are selling regarding their 850cc bike. On the same day that it emerged that Quartararo has agreed to join Honda, reports claim that Yamaha are close to striking a deal to sign Martin once his Aprilia contract expires this year.
Receive racing news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
