Fabio Decides to Stay Longer With Yamaha

Fabio Quartararo, the reigning MotoGP champion, has agreed to a new contract extension with Yamaha that would keep him with the brand until the end of the 2024 season. In 2020, the 23-year-old was moved from the Petronas SRT Yamaha satellite team to the works team, and the following year he won the marque’s first riders’ title since 2015.

However, there were questions about Yamaha’s ability to retain Quartararo beyond 2022, with the rider’s dissatisfaction with the M1 bike’s lack of top speed and general advancement getting louder during the off-season and the start of the current season.

That anxiety seems to subside, and it’s no surprise that Quartararo, who leads the current title battle by eight points over Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, has agreed to a new deal.

Yamaha MotoGP boss Lin Jarvis said, ” We brought Fabio into the factory team last year knowing he is a special talent, but he even exceeded our expectations.”

Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are so poised to be part of the Yamaha factory line-up for 2023, but there have been concerns over the latter’s contract security given his current low-key level of performance, despite the fact that he has been under contract for next year for quite some time.

However, Yamaha’s recent statements seemed to indicate that Morbidelli’s position in the team is safe and that it wouldn’t have anywhere to demote him within the camp anyway – as its current satellite team RNF will join forces with Aprilia instead next year, with Yamaha publicly admitting at Mugello that it will only have two bikes in 2023.