“IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TRUTH” Quartararo shocked everyone with his revelation about what Yamaha had been doing to him for a long time, prompting boss Paolo Pavesio to immediately speak out to explain.

Fabio Quartararo, Champion MotoGP 2021, recently made little subtle comments on his long -standing collaboration with Yamaha, revealing what Yamaha made him undergo (or not) over the seasons. Paolo Paveli, CEO of Yamaha MotoGP, immediately reacted to clarify the situation.

Over the years, Quartararo has repeatedly expressed its frustration as to the way in which Yamaha has developed the M1, from design to tests, including the implementation of innovations. One of the most frequent criticisms is that Yamaha “tries too many things” every weekend of racing, giving it more the impression of being a test pilot than a real competitor. Quartararo claims that the fact of constantly going from one version of the motorcycle to another – a heavier but offering better braking, the other lighter but with mediocre braking – completely disoriented it.

Quartararo also expressed his opinion without detour: the current Yamaha is, according to him, worse than never compared to his rivals. He said the motorcycle was far behind European manufacturers, especially in long turns or on land requiring high engine power and stability. Electronics and power management when the rear wheel is used also constitute a problem that prevents it from fully exploiting its potential.

Quartararo believes that, during the previous seasons, Yamaha made many promises in technical documents, during test sessions or in development plans, but that many have not been materialized or have not brought significant progress. He feels stuck between a motorcycle with high potential, but too slow management, innovation, adjustments and a lack of regularity. This created strong pressure for Quartararo, considered one of the best drivers in the world.

Shortly after the publication of these revelations, Paolo Pavesio spoke to explain. According to Pavesio, Yamaha acknowledged that internal communication between services-including the development service in Japan and the external race team-was harshly affected by the Cavid-19 pandemic. The confinements, the travel restrictions between the countries and the closure of the facilities made it very difficult to exchange information and the technical coordination between the teams.

Pavesio also admitted that, in the past, Yamaha had lacked consistency in the choice of its basic configuration for development. Instead of focusing on a stable motorcycle, the team has changed many variants and tested many types of components, depriving a quartarao of a clear base to compare and adjust its performance.

However, Pavesio stressed that for the current season (2025), Yamaha has profoundly changed its development structure: four pilots within the same team, benefiting from equivalent technical support; greater investments were made in data collection and the development of engines; And Yamaha works on a new V4 engine in the hope of restoring his competitive position. According to Pavesio, these developments have shown positive signs, even if there is still a lot to do.

The revelations of Quartararo, according to many, are not only the lamentations of a frustrated pilot, but a strong warning: a large manufacturer like Yamaha will find it difficult to keep up with the rhythm of the technical progress of his competitors if he does not change his way of working internally, developing his motorcycles and communicating between his different services.

For Quartararo, the truth he expressed – a feeling of lack of support, uneven tests and lack of stability in the motorcycle development base – was a call for a questioning of Yamaha. For Paolo Pavesio, the explanation was given: Yamaha admitted her wrongs, but insisted that she was correcting the situation, modifying her structure and seeking to regain her position.

The big question is: are the current changes sufficient to answer the hopes of Quartararo-and fans-to see Yamaha quickly reconnect with victory, or are they simply new promises? We will have to wait for the next races to find out.