Why MotoGP's ego-free superstar should have Marquez worried

The start of the 2020 MotoGP season is fast approaching, with the season-opener at Jerez just one month away. And it's now that the questions posed at the end of testing in February resurface.

How well will Honda go after a torrid winter which it only started to dig its way out of on the final day in Qatar? Will Maverick Vinales and Yamaha deliver on the promises their winter made? Is Suzuki a genuine title contender? Where will Ducati fold into the mix?

Autosport will attempt to answer those in due course, but for now there's one question we will address: will Fabio Quartararo fight for the 2020 MotoGP world championship?

The Frenchman was something of a surprise choice by Petronas SRT to join Franco Morbidelli at the Yamaha satellite squad for its debut premier class campaign last year, not least because of how quickly it all came about.

Quartararo caused quite the stir in his pre-grand prix days, dominating the CEV Moto3 championship in 2013 and 2014, securing graduation to the Moto3 World Championship in 2015 with the Monlau squad. At just 15 years old (allowed to compete under the FIM's age limit of 16 owing to a rule change in 2014 that stipulated any CEV champion could compete in grand prix racing regardless of their age) Quartararo was hailed as the next Marc Marquez.

By the second round, he'd made it to the podium with a second-place finish at the Circuit of Americas, and that hype was looking to be justified. But aside from one more second place at Assen, the rookie's form dipped and he wouldn't get near a rostrum again until 2018 when he was in his second year in Moto2.

Remaining in Moto3 for a second season in 2016, he joined the Leopard Racing squad that had taken Danny Kent to the title the year before, but managed just three top five finishes all year before moving to Moto2 the following year with Pons Racing - who had recently had Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins on its books, both of whom on a fast-track to MotoGP's premier class.

Results were pretty average again, and he landed at Speed Up for 2018. The first six rounds proved to be much of the same, but then came an imperious performance in Barcelona as he took a shock first win. And that's when the floodgates opened.

Over the next few rounds, Quartararo emerged as favourite to join SRT - who had also been considering Dani Pedrosa and Alvaro Bautista. When Pedrosa announced at the German Grand Prix in 2018 that he'd be retiring at the end of the year, Quartararo's MotoGP move was almost assured.

• Autosport's assessment of Quartararo in 2018
• The forgotten next Marquez who 'lost his way'

Initially set to ride a year-old Yamaha in 2019, a strong pre-season led Yamaha to swap out his bike's engine for a slightly detuned 2019-spec unit. As the year progressed and Quartararo started to tally up his six poles and seven podiums, more factory parts came his way, and the fact that he was proving so strong simply by focusing on what he already had underneath him ultimately allowed Vinales to improve his own bike.

All of this, coupled with an unwillingness from Valentino Rossi to commit to a new deal without having raced in 2020, led to Yamaha offering Quartararo a deal to join its works squad next year.

"It wouldn't hurt me to get to the Yamaha factory team without having won a race, because I always give my best. And if it happens that I have not won yet, so it will be" Fabio Quartararo

Coming close to two wins last year, at the San Marino and Thailand GPs after dogfights with Marquez - prompting Marquez to mark him out as a title threat - Quartararo is expected to be a regular occupier of the heavily disinfected top step of the podium this year.

But speaking to Autosport recently, Quartararo says he isn't singing from the 'must win a race' hymn sheet - as far as he's concerned, it's not a requirement in his sophomore campaign ahead of his big-time factory Yamaha step.

"It wouldn't hurt me to get to the Yamaha factory team without having won a race, because I always give my best," he said. "And if it happens that I have not won yet, so it will be.

"Never in my life have I worked as hard as I do now, and I don't doubt my abilities. But winning a MotoGP race is something tremendous. I will try with all my might, but nothing would happen if I got there [to the factory Yamaha team in 2021] without having won."

This should worry his rivals quite a bit. At just 21 years old, Quartararo is wise beyond his years. And it's the hard knocks he took in his early grand prix days, suffering under the weight of the immense pressure being exerted upon him to perform, that have shaped him into a devastatingly relaxed rider.

I was immediately endeared by him when I spoke with him at Silverstone in 2018 just after his MotoGP deal was announced. Just 19 at that point, he already displayed something - or rather a lack of - that is rare amongst young racers: no ego.

Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis commented in 2018 that Quartararo had "lost his way" in Moto3 and Moto2, and Quartararo openly admitted that the pressure of that time got to him.

When he was forced to start from pitlane in his debut in Qatar last year - having stalled on his fifth-place grid slot - the bitter disappointment of seeing a potential podium turn into zero points left him at "rock bottom". But, armed with the experiences of a tough career, he immediately sought help from a phycologist to ensure he didn't get trapped in his own mind again. And, as history shows, the results were immediate.

"It was an unexpected, hard blow that knocked me out," he told Italian GQ earlier in the year. "Yet during my career I had already experienced the bitterness of defeat. [That] horrible feeling helped me to understand that I needed to transform negative tension into positive energy and I found the courage to ask a psychologist for help.

"I hit rock bottom, I went back to the surface through introspective work and a few easy exercises and lo and behold, the benefits on track came right away."

And all through last year - when his gearshifter broke while running second at Jerez; when he was beaten by Marquez at Misano; and in Thailand when he came one corner away from victory - Quartararo had this incredible knack to immediately find the positives from the experience.

PLUS: How Quartararo won the first battle of MotoGP's 2020 title race

Being that head-strong meant when Marquez tried to rattle Quartararo by shadowing him throughout qualifying at Sepang, Quartararo stayed upright and wound up on pole, while Marquez suffered a monster crash which partially dislocated his right shoulder. For the first time, Marquez's own mind games backfired.

I wrote earlier this year that Vinales, and the mindset changes he has made over the past year, mark him out as Marquez's main threat this season. And I still believe that to be true.

PLUS: How a mindset change created Marquez's biggest 2020 rival

Quartararo knows his future is secured, so there won't be a monkey on his back he'll be anxiously waiting to eject

But where he and Marquez differ from Quartararo is in their own expectations: several frustrating years with Yamaha now look to finally be paying off as Vinales heads into this year believing he can properly fight for the title, while Marquez - as reigning champion - has his own point to prove.

Quartararo, meanwhile, knows his future is secured and that he has already shown enough to justify that move. As a result, there won't be a monkey on his back he'll be anxiously waiting to eject.

In theory, this should allow him to just pick up where he left off in 2019 - albeit with a year of experience under his belt and full factory machinery at his disposal.

Combine that with a rider devoid of pressure and ego, and Quartararo's apparent nonchalance stands to make him arguably the deadliest force on the grid in 2020.