Can Fabio Quatararo bounce back? It seems a lifetime ago now when Fabio was the world champion in 2021. The Yamaha YZR-M1 has not exactly impressed this year; although they seem to be making some headway in regards to aero, the only inline 4 cylinder bike on the grid does not seem to be able to keep up with the pack. Fabio, once seen as a Marquez prodigy and expected to win multiple championships, has a highest finish of 5th place in the 24 season, which admittedly is a lot better than his team mate Alex Rins who has a highest finish of 12th. 

In my humble opinion, both Marc Marquez and Fabio were in very similar positions, both on slow factory bikes unable to compete at the level of their abilities. Marc was clearly hungry for more, he showed his drive was not entirely financial and gave up millions in order to move to a smaller team for the pure reason to be back in the race. Fabio had the opportunity undoubtedly to move to a faster bike, however he chose to sign another contract with Yamaha (for an eye watering fee). Whether it is due to his age and seeing that sum of money on a contract with your name is more important than competing for podiums/ wins, or he is genuinely invested in the project and wants the achievement of developing the bike into a winner, I don’t think anyone will truly know other than el’ diablo himself. Recently, on Fabios Instagram, he pictured himself collecting his championship winning bike from 2021. Hopefully he can use this as motivation and a reminder that he can do it, as it would be a terrible shame for a talent like him to lose his drive and begin to fall out of love with racing.

During the race, it’s clear that he still has ‘it’; finishing 5th in Jarez was a massive achievement on that bike, however you can see that despite his skill and racing brain, the bike just doesn’t have enough. The good news is that Yamaha are basically using this year as a test year, trialling and testing new aero, new engines and new settings. Luckily factory Yamaha’s main sponsors don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, which already puts them in a better situation than Honda, so I do remain hopeful that they can continue to invest significantly into improving the bike. Let’s not forget that Ducati were at the back of the pack for some time, along with Aprillia and KTM, a few years later and you rarely see a race without them on the top of the podium. The main lesson Yamaha should take from the paddock, should be from Honda, relying on the skill of Marquez to keep them in the points, because as proven with Alex Rins, if Fabio were to leave then it will put Yamaha in an even worse situation. Also as we learnt from Ducati this year, the developments on their bike were not initially well suited to their main man Pecco, but they know that developing the bike and pushing out of the comfort zone is how to remain on top.