Quartararo needs Yamaha’s progress before signing a new MotoGP deal

The first pre-season test of the 2022 season began on Thursday in Jerez, with Quartararo finishing ninth, 0.707 seconds back.

The World Champion tested Yamaha’s 2022 bike but sounded stale when he said the bike was basically the same as the prototype he tested at Misano in September, having admittedly expected more new parts.

With Yamaha keen to sign Quartararo for 2023 and the summer lull likely to get going over the winter, the 2021 World Champion says he won’t sign anything before seeing what Yamaha has to say about the pre-season test in Brings Sepang in February.

“No, I think it’s early days,” he said when asked about a 2023 deal with Yamaha.

“I don’t want to sign anything before Malaysia at least: I want to see the development of our bike.

“I think this is normal. I don’t think it’s normal to sign for 2023 without starting 2022, so I think I know where my value lies.

“I will wait a while to see how the team positions towards Yamaha, particularly to see the development of the new bike at Sepang or not.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I am asking for very important things. After that it’s something that if they don’t show what I ask they at least try and there’s a little improvement, that’s good.

“But if I see them going in a completely different direction, it may affect my future at Yamaha.”

The main change Quartararo would like to see with the 2022 bike is more power, with the Yamaha regularly dropping 8mph plus to the Ducatis this season.

When asked by Autosport what his general feeling was on the 2022 bike after day one at Jerez, he said: “Well, we tried a really similar bike to Misano… well, to be honest, it was the bike from Misano.

“So we tried that, we tried more things like a new swingarm, some electronics, anti-wheelie.

“But to be honest it was a very similar test to Misano.

“More work needs to be done to see improvement. Still, [there’s] For some, as you can imagine, the bike is the first step and we hope for much better at Sepang.”

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