Fabio Quartararo

Perhaps a make-or-break year for Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo will want to see big improvements if he's to commit his future with the Japanese manufacturer beyond 2024. 

France's first-ever premier-class world champion in 2021, Quartararo impressed by keeping his underpowered Yamaha on top of the world championship table for much of 2022.

But despite building a massive 91-point advantage over Francesco Bagnaia in the first half of the season, Quartararo lost the title advantage to the Ducati rider with two rounds remaining.

In a season where all the tfront runners suffered multiple non-scores, Quartararo was left empty-handed at Assen (a clash while trying to pass Aleix Espargaro, followed by a second fall), Aragon (hit the back of Marc Marquez on the opening lap), Thailand (struggled with high tyre pressure in the wet race) and finally Australia, where the second of two early mistakes put Bagnaia on course for the crown.

But those moments were more than countered by Quartararo's night-and-day advantage over his fellow Yamaha riders: In a season that saw the #20 celebrate three wins and eight podiums, no other Yamaha rider finished a dry race in the top nine! 

While Quartararo claimed title runner-up with 248 points, beleaguered team-mate Franco Morbidelli was the next best M1 with just 42 points for 19th - the kind of gulf between team-mates only previously seen with the likes of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez.

The Frenchman made his MotoGP debut in 2019 and proved a surprise revelation with the Petronas SRT Yamaha squad, landing seven podiums and six pole positions despite a relatively modest career in Moto3 and Moto2.

After two seasons with the Malaysian-backed Petronas SRT team, Quartararo joined the Factory Yamaha squad after replacing Rossi for 2021 and promptly won Yamaha's first world title since Jorge Lorenzo in 2015.

Fabio Quartararo - Route to MotoGP

Before joining the Grand Prix paddock, Quartararo won six Spanish championship titles including successive CEV Moto3 crowns in 2013 and 2014. The first CEV title he claimed aged just 14 years and 218 days, beating the previous record held by Aleix Espargaro. Due to world championship rules Quartararo had to stay in CEV for 2014 and won nine out of 11 races and finished second in the other two.

Midway through 2014 FIM and Dorna changed its rules which saw the CEV champion allowed to compete in the Moto3 world championship the year after regardless of age to permit Quartararo to make the step up in 2015.

Given the huge attention the French rider received, he was snapped up by the Repsol Estrella Galicia 0,0 squad for his rookie Moto3 campaign and stormed to second place in just his second race. Despite poles at Jerez and Le Mans plus a second rostrum at Assen, his debut season was hampered by injury as he required ankle surgery following a crash during Friday practice at Misano. Quartararo missed a total of five races to slump to 10^th in the championship.

Switching to Leopard Racing and KTM in 2016, Quartararo failed to reach former heights with a pair of fourth places in Austria and Malaysia his best results on the way to 13^th place in the championship standings.

Quartararo made the move up to Moto2 in 2017 with Pons HP40 but was outshone by fellow rookies Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder as he took time to adapt to the intermediate class after five years on Moto3 machinery.

A second year in Moto2, moving to Speed Up, saw the French rider produce a breakthrough race with pole position and victory in Catalunya before following it up with second place at Assen. Ultimately, Quartararo failed to challenge for the podium but became a consistent top-ten finisher to take 10^th place in the riders’ standings.

Quartararo also won in Motegi but was disqualified post-race for a tyre pressure infringement but the ruling cleared the rider of any wrongdoing on his part.

Fabio Quartararo in MotoGP

Petronas SRT Yamaha (2019 - 2020)

With Quartararo earning a MotoGP promotion with Petronas Yamaha SRT, the French rider quickly became a sensation in the premier class with the 2018-specification. Quartararo quickly forgot about a nightmare debut, when he stalled his bike on the grid in Qatar ahead of the opener, with a pair of top eight finishes in Argentina and the United States.

But Quartararo's status shot up at Jerez when he claimed pole position, ahead of Petronas Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli in second place, and led a handful of laps before a cruel technical issue halted his charge.

Another pole position followed at Catalunya and this time he profited from the misfortune of others to take a maiden podium with second place. He quickly repeated the feat at the next race at Assen with another pole position and podium.

The podium run continued in Austria, Misano, Thailand, Japan and Valencia as he ended the year as top MotoGP rookie, fifth in the overall standings with a total of seven podiums and six poles.

For 2020 Quartararo was upgraded to the same-spec M1 as the Factory riders and installed as one of the riders best poised to rival the mighty Marc Marquez. However, this was upgraded to favourite on the back of two wins in the opening two races at Jerez, while Marquez ruled himself out of contention with injury.

However, though Quartararo led the standings for much of the truncated season, he won only one more time in Catalunya and once Joan Mir had surpassed him in the standings with five races remaining, the Frenchman's form slumped so markedly he dropped from first to eighth by the end of the year. By contrast, a revitalised Morbidelli turned the tables on him by finishing runner-up in the standings.

Despite this, it was confirmed prior to the 2020 MotoGP season getting underway that he would be Yamaha Factory bound for 2021, replacing Valentino Rossi.

Monster Yamaha (2021 - Present)

Pick almost any metric to judge Quartararo by during the 2021 MotoGP season and he comes out on top of all his main rivals: Most race wins, podiums, fastest laps and points, the least DNFs.

The only exception was pole positions, with 5 for Quartararo versus the 6 of title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia, but Quartararo gets the edge over the Italian for front rows with 14 vs 12.

And while Bagnaia was one of three Ducati riders in the championship top five, Quartararo trounced his fellow Yamaha riders with a Marc Marquez-level of dominance.

Team-mate Maverick Vinales won the opening race but had roughly half the points of Quartararo by the time he split from Yamaha in Austria. By season's end, all the other Yamaha riders combined had amassed just three podiums.

Quartararo's historic title (the first for a French rider in the premier-class) came after picking himself up from last season's dramatic downward spiral from first to eighth in the standings at Petronas.

It also necessitated overcoming points lost due to arm-pump problems in Jerez (resulting in surgery) and the 'wardrobe malfunction' with his leathers in Catalunya.

The final third of the season then saw the #20 fend off intense pressure from Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, the duo sharing the final six victories, while Quartararo kept a cool head to protect his title lead.

Quartararo's only DNF came at Portimao, after the title had been decided.

While team-mate Franco Morbidelli one of the few riders to already sign for 2023, Yamaha began 2022 under pressure to provide Quartararo with the horsepower he desired to battle Ducati and help secure a new deal with the Frenchman.

The 2022 engine proved a disappointment, offering little extra performance over the previous season, but the resulting technical shake-up - including Yamaha hiring ex-F1 engine designer Luca Marmorini - helped convince Quartararo to re-sign until 2024.

But despite signing another two-year deal, Quartararo endured an even tougher 2023 season and finished the campaign winless.