Fabio Quartararo believes Marc Marquez’s exit from Honda last term “woke a lot of people up” at Yamaha, prompting him to renew with the Japanese MotoGP team.
Quartararo put pen to paper earlier this month on a contract extension that will see the 2021 MotoGP World Champion remain with Yamaha through the 2025 season.
Despite Yamaha’s struggles persisting into 2024, the Frenchman has remained committed to the manufacturer that provided him with his MotoGP debut seat in 2019.
Marquez, who had been with Honda his entire premier class career, elected to make the switch to Gresini Ducati for this season and is back competing at the sharp end.
Quartararo reckons that the threat of him contemplating a similar move elsewhere resulted in Yamaha implementing the change in direction needed to retain its rider.
“It’s a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for,” he told French broadcaster Canal+. “My choice was to stay with Yamaha, not by default, but for the project.
“I think that Marquez’s departure from Honda to Ducati woke up a lot of people at Yamaha.
“They’ve recruited a lot of new engineers, and a lot of things are happening in Italy rather than in Japan.
“The speed with which parts can be changed has totally changed. I think it was very interesting for me to continue with Yamaha.”
Questions were raised when Quartararo put pen to paper on an extension, but Yamaha has revealed it is in the process of revamping its venture with new personnel.
That marked change in approach, the willingness to invest and the new concessions structure implemented in MotoGP from 2024 were factors in Quartararo’s deal.
“Of course, I totally understand [that people have doubts] because even I, a few months ago, was really ready to take my departure for another team,” he said.
“I’m not going to say [which one] but of course, Yamaha is investing huge sums to get a better bike. I think it’s one of the only brands investing so much in this project.
“We’re already going to see some improvements this year.
“I think that this year will be very difficult, already to fight for a few podiums, but I think that this year will be very important for the next two.”
