Quartararo: Continued growth of Yamaha’s MotoGP rivals in 2023 “my biggest worry”

Yamaha’s 2023 season has been disappointing, with the Japanese marque bottom of the manufacturers’ table having scored just one grand prix podium and one sprint rostrum courtesy of 2021 world champion Quartararo.

The Frenchman has complained numerous times this season that everything Yamaha tried with the new bike in the winter never worked, with Quartararo reverting to 2021 set-up solutions for the recent Mugello/Sachsenring/Assen triple-header.

In September, Quartararo should get his first taste of what Yamaha is working on for its 2024 bike at the post-San Marino Grand Prix test at Misano.

However, he says he “doesn’t care” about this as he wants the 2023 bike to develop – though admits Yamaha currently has “nothing planned”.

“Even the Misano test, it will be for next year’s bike,” he said during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.

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“So, to be honest, I can wait until Misano, but I don’t really care because what I want is [improvements for] this year.

“Next year is something else. I want to perform now… of course next year I want to perform, but we are not even at half of the season and there is nothing really planned.

“The others I know, they are all the time during one season growing. So, this is my biggest worry.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“For this year’s bike, I expected much bigger changes. But nothing really worked in the pre-season, so we went back to everything basically from the past years.

“But of course, for next year I really hope for a big change.”

With MotoGP in the midst of its five-week summer break, the identity of Quartararo’s team-mate for 2024 remains unknown as Franco Morbidelli’s contract expires at the end of the season.

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Asked if he had a preference on his team-mate for next year, Quartararo said: “No, I don’t care at all.

“To be honest, whoever comes or stays, I have not a preference. Of course, I would prefer someone who has experience in MotoGP, but about the person I don’t care.”