Marco Bezzecchi
With a move to Honda on the horizon, Fabio Quartararo has seemingly thrown in the towel on his final season with Yamaha.
Quartararo has admitted to being checked out with Yamaha on numerous occasions this season, as the French rider looks forward to joining Honda next year.
At one point in the season, Quartararo blamed Yamaha’s bike for his lack of motivation, suggesting that the inability to deliver results with his bike has left him lackadaisical on race weekends.
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And with his recent performances not being anything to write home about, it’s hard to argue against the idea that Fabio Quartararo isn’t in the zone.
But Marco Melandri believes the issue goes beyond just a lack of motivation, as Quartararo now dreads the idea of getting on the track on a race weekend.
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Marco Melandri fears Fabio Quartararo doesn’t even want to ‘try anymore’ at Yamaha
Speaking on the Chiacchiere da Box podcast, Marco Melandri was asked about the lack of strong performances from Fabio Quartararo.
Melandri believes Quartararo is mentally exhausted because of the ceiling this year’s Yamaha bike has, and just can’t bring himself to give any race his all.
“I think he is mentally drained. When you get to that point, you just don’t want to try anymore. I think he’s in that phase where he arrives on track and can’t wait to leave.
“It’s hard to understand because one says, ‘Well, you’re lucky, you earn a lot of money for your dream job.’
“But after so many times, when you’re used to getting certain results, you arrive on track, you know you can’t do anything to improve, so you enter a really difficult headspace.”
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Marco Melandri says Fabio Quartararo’s situation isn’t comparable to other frustrated riders
When asked about why Quartararo’s situation is different from Marc Marquez’s final year with Honda, Melandri admitted that, as riders and as people, the two are very different.
“You have to know every situation from the inside to be able to judge it. Not all minds are the same. People react differently.
“It’s also difficult to understand the atmosphere that is created around the rider. It’s a series of circumstances that from the outside seem easy to solve, but when you’re in that headspace, it is very heavy.”
This negative slant in his mentality has led to the Yamaha rider being very vocal in his criticism of the team and the bike.
More recently, Quartararo admitted he was too vocal against Yamaha and should have kept his criticisms a bit more private.
But there are questions to be asked as to why Yamaha didn’t stop Quartararo from doing interviews when they knew that he was going to take a critical approach.
Regardless of the handling of the situation, it has become clear that neither Quartararo nor Yamaha are really looking to end their partnership on a high note, as both sides seem content to see out the season and move on to better things in 2027.
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