This year has been a rough and tumble one for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team racer Fabio Quartararo, but it took a turn for the better at Imola last weekend when the French rider was in fifth place before running out of gas in the penultimate corner and crossing the finish line in seventh place.
“This is by far one of the best GPs we’ve had this year,” he said after the race. “If we do a similar kind of weekend in Indonesia, I think it’s a big step forward for us.”
Fast-forward to the Mandalika street circuit – the venue for this weekend’s race.
“I think it is going to be a great weekend,” said Quartararo from the Indonesian paddock. “It is a great track and hopefully there is some grip for us. We’ll see how it is going to go.
“We knew that we would not fight straight away for the top five, but I think we know where we are and we know where we are strong and now the way is only up for us. For sure there will be some ups and downs, but right now I think the way is coming back and lately we have been strong in every Sprint race since Aragon, and we have done some great results. I think we are making some really good steps forward and hopefully we can make even more progress during the end of the season.”
Despite some off-song performance and a prism of setbacks experienced in 2024, Quartaro, who has been with Yamaha since his MotoGP career was launched in 2019, signed a two-year contract extension with Yamaha in April. The relationship shows the two entities believe in one another.
“Yeah, we are fully committed with Yamaha for the next two years, so I think it is great to have good energy,” he said. “I think the attitude in the team is great. We’re working in a really good way. We want to be positive and bring the goodwill together.
“When I signed with Yamaha, they gave me the opportunity to be in MotoGP,” furthered Quartararo. “We won the world championship together and now we are working on everything together. The only way up is to work hard, and that’s why I wanted to follow through on this, because this is a brand that I love and a brand that gave me the chance to be here and a brand that basically gave me the chance to be who I am today. I want to be really positive and to put the brand on the top again.”
The Yamaha/Quartararo combination is one that knows how to win. And the winning can happen again, but specific areas need to be addressed.
“Yes, there are performance issues that we’ve never really had,” he said. “The grip and the power issues that we formerly produced; we never really had it this season. So this is what I mean. We know where to put the pieces on the bike to fight, but the most difficult thing is to find what we are missing. I think that is going to be the most difficult part, but the engineers are here to make the bike better.
“I think the motivation is also coming. The middle part of the season was especially tough because we didn’t make any steps forward. However, right now we feel that the bike is improving a little bit, and the results are coming, and the motivation is getting even better. This is what I need. I don’t really need to really fight for the podium tomorrow, but I need the results to improve step by step, and I also need to feel the positive energy from the team and from myself. I think this is going to be great.”
Now in his 10th year of being a Grand Prix racer – Quartararo competed in the FIM Moto3 and Moto2 classifications from 2015 through 2018 – the 25-year-old still gets a buzz from his job.
“Yes, of course I still enjoy it,” he said. “Of course I’m enjoying being a MotoGP rider. I am enjoying it a lot, especially when we see that things are being improved. The plan here is to win again, and we will do our best to do it again.
“From now to the end of the season, I want to be part of some really good races. I want to be in the top five in some races. I think this must be the goal. It is difficult to set a clear goal. Some tracks may be a little bit more difficult. Some tracks we will do better at. Some tracks will be worse at. Our goal is to always be looking up and up.”