Will Yamaha's 2022 MotoGP title hopes hinge on a mindset?

MotoGP’s 2022 pre-season is underway, with two days of testing at the Sepang International Circuit in the books and three final days at the new Mandalika track in Indonesia this weekend still to come. Already, it looks like Yamaha’s and Fabio Quartararo’s title defence is off to a difficult start.

While Honda, Ducati and Suzuki have seemingly taken major steps forward with their challengers, the tone permeating Yamaha’s test was one of frustration. Quartararo came into 2022 unhappy with how the M1 had progressed – or hadn’t – in November’s two-day test at Jerez. Back then he told French media that he would not be signing anything with Yamaha for 2023 until he’d seen tangible progress in Malaysia. Well, that doesn’t seem to have happened – and, typically, thoughts have now turned to how this could impact the rider market this year.

The reality is that Quartararo is unlikely to get a better offer than what Yamaha – who admitted in Malaysia that re-signing the Frenchman was its top priority – is likely going to put in front of him. And, indeed, what he feels he deserves as reigning world champion. For now, this is a matter for Quartararo’s manager. The rider’s primary focus is adding to his haul of MotoGP titles in 2022.

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During his three years in the premier class, Quartararo has evolved in quite stark ways to become France’s first MotoGP world champion last year. After a tough 2020 season with Petronas SRT, he sought help from a sports psychologist, which helped him to keep his anger in check when things weren’t going his way.

This was borne out in his approach to 2021, when he regularly struck back from difficult moments, such as arm pump robbing him of victory at Jerez and issues with his race leathers at Barcelona, with podiums and race wins. It was this, allied to his incredible speed and understanding of the Yamaha, that secured him the championship with two rounds to spare.

But it seems that this hasn’t bred complacency within Quartararo’s mind. Ahead of the Sepang test, he spoke of how he came into 2022 not as a reigning champion but as just another contender.

Quartararo says he's approaching the championship with the same approach as he took in 2021

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I’m challenging exactly the same as last year, like if I was not champion,” he said. “My goal is like I started last year, not to say I want to be world champion. Of course, it’s the long-term goal, but the short-term goal is to win races and make podiums, because without this you can’t be world champion. So, basically, it’s the first step to be world champion; to fight for victories and podiums.”

He then batted away suggestions that he was under more pressure now as reigning champion: “I have less pressure because I achieved my dreams and most riders don’t achieve this dream to be MotoGP world champion.”

Compared to how his predecessor on MotoGP’s throne, Joan Mir, approached the winter of his title defence, there are lessons to be learned. The Suzuki star admitted late last year that he basically gave himself no time off in the winter of 2020-21, because he felt he had to train harder to once again win the championship.

Quartararo can take solace in the fact that last year, even with Yamaha’s power deficit, he was still able to win at Ducati strongholds in Qatar and at Mugello. Qualifying will remain the key to his weekends again

Mir absolutely rode better in 2021 than he did in 2020, but was severely limited by the machinery underneath him, which took on very little development compared to its rivals. Mir felt some burnout from all of this, taking a complete week off – no riding, no training – in October between the Emilia Romagna and Algarve Grands Prix.

“Fear is the mind killer,” so is repeated throughout Frank Herbert’s Dune. It can be reasoned, then, that pressure is the championship killer for a MotoGP rider.

That Quartararo has adopted this approach could well end up being Yamaha’s saving grace in 2022. He was by no means slow at Sepang – he ended up seventh overall, just 0.182 seconds from an outright testing record set by Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini. But Yamaha made few gains with its engine and its power output, which was the thing Quartararo spent the winter asking for.

With this unlikely to be improved before an engine development freeze comes into effect from the opening round in Qatar on 6 March, and Quartararo adamant that he won’t race any untested engine, Yamaha once again faces a season with a major power deficit. This can mean anywhere up to 10km/h (6mph), depending on the circuit.

Mir struggled in 2021 as his championship defence came off the rails, which Quartararo is eager to avoid

Photo by: Dorna

Though he was “not happy compared to what I expected” after the test, Quartararo’s mindset was telling: “I think it’s important not to focus and say too much in my mind like, ‘Ah, I’m disappointed, I expected much better’, so I don’t feel, like, lazy – depressed. I don’t care, I have what I have, and what I love is to put myself on the red zone.”

Quartararo can take solace in the fact that last year, even with Yamaha’s power deficit, he was still able to win at Ducati strongholds in Qatar and at Mugello. Qualifying will remain the key to his weekends again.

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Yamaha faces a 2022 similar to Suzuki’s 2021, but its title hopes are far from lost thanks to Quartararo’s approach. He’ll just have to do things the hard way in 2022.

Facing a continued power deficit to Ducati, Quartararo won't have things easy in 2022

Photo by: Dorna