Why Yamaha has just six months to safeguard its MotoGP champion's future

Regardless of what happens at the final stop of the 2022 calendar in Valencia, where Francesco Bagnaia has everything in his favour to give Ducati the second riders' title in its history, no one in the entire MotoGP paddock has any doubt that Fabio Quartararo has performed well above the bike he has ridden.

This becomes very evident when you compare the reigning world champion's statistics with those of the other three riders competing on the same bike. Aside from being the only one to have won and been on the podium a total of eight times across the season, Quartararo has accumulated 235 points out of the total 308 points shared by all Yamaha riders, a ratio of 76.3%.

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In line with the numerical evidence of his genius this year, most opponents are not short of praise for him either: "What Fabio has done this year is incredible. He has a bike with which he can go fast in practice, when he rides alone. But in the race he doesn't give him a fighting chance," Marc Marquez said during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

At Sepang, Quartararo put in one of his best performances of the season, taking a podium finish at a circuit that maximises the lack of power of his prototype, especially when measured against the Ducati and its enormous speed. That technical limitation must be added to the physical one, in the form of a fracture in the middle finger of the left hand, as a result of a crash he suffered on Saturday in Malaysia.

There is probably no more rigorous testimony to value Quartararo's feat than that of Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha tester and who since Aragon has been replacing Andrea Dovizioso at RNF Racing. The Briton knows almost better than anyone the M1's strengths and its shortcomings from the long hours he's put in, in testing, but also for his 'forced' return to the races.

"We need a bike that is capable of fighting the others, because now we can only go fast if we ride alone. We lack the straightline speed to be able to overtake," said the Coventry-born rider.

The figure of Crutchlow is of paramount importance if we take into account that he is in charge of the development of the bike with which Yamaha must convince Quartararo that he was right to renew his commitment to for another two years through to the end of 2024.

Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow has been a key asset in developing the 2023 bike Quartararo needs

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

According to both parties, that signature materialised after the Japanese marque committed to its star to make the extra effort necessary to give him the weapons he needs to fight for the title. The priority is focused on gaining power. Those responsible for the Japanese manufacturer are aware of the urgency and the need not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

In a chat with Autosport in the Yamaha office at Sepang, Lin Jarvis, team boss, detailed where the problems that have caused so many headaches to the current champion come from. Everything responds to a technical setback that during the winter led the engineers to take a conservative decision to avoid greater evils.

"We had a reliability problem with the unit that we had to introduce in 2022, and that we were developing during 2021. That's why we couldn't homologate it. There's no point in using a more powerful engine if it's not reliable," Jarvis told this writer. "Obviously, the first problem we faced was having to tell Fabio, as world champion. This year he raced with the same power level as in 2021, and he obviously didn't like that."

Listening to Jarvis' argument it becomes easier to understand why Quartararo has been so respectful to Yamaha throughout, despite having to ride at a disadvantage. He already went into Qatar knowing this and, moreover, the great first half of the season he rode, with three wins and six podiums out of a possible 10, led him to dream of retaining the crown, before Ducati's reaction, personified by Bagnaia, brought him back to reality.

From Tuesday's test after the Valencia Grand Prix, and until the next championship starts at Portimao at the end of March, the team's technical division has to give its spearhead enough guarantees to take his mind off the slightest possibility of starting to think about a change of scenery

"Fabio could have been a lot tougher on us than he has been, and for that we thank him," says Jarvis. To correct that lack of punch, the company has turned to engine specialist Luca Marmorini, who not only aims to eliminate that fragility that prevented the use of the specification planned for 2022, but also to increase its muscle even a little more: "There are times when you have to hit rock bottom to come out stronger, and that's why we signed Marmorini's group this January, to try to straighten out the bike's biggest weakness," Jarvis notes.

To ensure the shot, Yamaha is working on several lines of development to try to find an engine that is as close as possible to the ideal. Crutchlow will travel this Friday and Saturday to Jerez, where his main mission in these two days of testing will be to refine that engine, with the intention of making Quartararo see that the reaction he has been asking for so long is materialising.

"We've gone through four engine evolutions. There is no clear direction yet. Maybe in Valencia [at the test] the final version won't be ready. We need more power, we need more top speed. But we also need other things that you don't get in one week," Crutchlow said before the trip to Spain.

Quartararo has often been left powerless to defend this season against much faster bikes

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Yamaha is facing a decisive stage. From Tuesday's test after the Valencia Grand Prix, and until the next championship starts at Portimao at the end of March, the team's technical division has to give its spearhead enough guarantees to take his mind off the slightest possibility of starting to think about a change of scenery.

Especially if we take into account the speed at which the market is moving. Most of the top riders start a two-year cycle with their respective teams in 2023, but as things stand, the planning of the grid for 2025 will begin to take shape before the next summer break. By then Yamaha must have shown Quartararo that it is indeed in a position to give him what he deserves.

Yamaha faces a crucial winter to keep its superstar from re-evaluating his MotoGP future

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images