Quartararo, attack on Yamaha: as with Valentino Rossi

Quartararo bluntly: “We’re stuck with 2019, it’s frustrating”

Yamaha centaur Fabio Quartararo sent another broadside to the Japanese stable in an interview with Speedweek. Despite winning the title in 2021, the French rider points the finger at the bike, which lags far behind Ducati: “When you look at how much the others have improved on the lap from 2019 to today, it’s frustrating. The others have improved enormously, we have stayed at the level of 2019 or worse.”

In 2019 Quartararo was making his Yamaha debut with the Petronas team, while on the factory team was Valentino Rossi, who was already complaining in similar tones to the transalpine: “This year was very frustrating for me because I gave 100 percent and we were so far behind. There were times when it was very difficult for me to face reality. Not so much for the results, but for myself-I got on the bike with much less enthusiasm than in previous years.”

Quartararo also pointed out that he had no references in the team, unlike Bagnaia: “Neither the customer team riders nor my teammate were competitive, so I had no references but myself.”