Fabio Quattararo has now admitted he has changed his “goals” at Yamaha for the 2026 season, with the 2021 MotoGP champion in the final year of his contract at the team.
He was a 26-year-old leader Yamaha In the year Team since replacing Valentino Rossi in the factory garage in 2021. Quatararo After two years at Petronas SRT, he moved to the Iwata Works Team and beat Francesco Bagna in his first year at Yamaha.
Yamaha has moved to lock down the Qatari rider with new contracts between June 2022 and April 2024, tying the Japanese team’s lead rider. Yamaha made the Quatara the highest-paid on the grid at £10m per season. With the contract keeping him at Iwata until 2026.
But questions about Quattararo’s presence at Yamaha beyond 2026 have been rife ahead of the new season. Yamaha dreams of pairing Catararo with Torak Razgatlioglu for 2027.But the Frenchman is not ready to rejoin the team for the era of 850cc regulations.
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Fabio Quattararo admitted that it is not his ‘goal’ to return Yamaha to the top
Quattararo has made it clear that the only way he can convince Yamaha to sign a new contract is how he feels riding the new V4 M1. Yamaha’s bike for the 2026 season has a lot in common with Ducati.With the brand now using a V4 engine instead of a line four.
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But Quattararo has also made a drastic change ahead of the 2026 season, not prioritizing Yamaha’s return to the top of MotoGP and putting results ahead of the team. Yamaha and Quattroro last won a Grand Prix in 2022 when they won the German GP.
Quatararo told MotoGP. website: “(Staying) can convince me to jump on the bike and feel like I’m fast and have fun.
“When I signed for this year and next year, my goal was to bring some good results to Yamaha. But now, I want to focus on my future and my goals.”
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In the 2022 MotoGP Riders’ Championship, Quattroro finished second to Ducati’s Ace Bagnaia after taking three Grand Prix victories on Yamaha. But Ducati was then the dominant force, and Yamaha had yet to build a competitive bike.
The M1’s shortcomings were compared to those of Desmosedici, particularly as Quattroro failed to score a single Grand Prix podium – let alone win a race – in 2015. In 2024. The Nice native took one Grand Prix podium in 2025 at the Spanish GP, for which he also secured pole position.
Quattararo hopes that in 2026 Yamaha’s new V4 engine will be able to combat the problems it faced in 2025, which meant the five pillars were headed for nothing overall. It was often a sitting duck in a straight line thanks to its V4-engined rivals in line four.
