Quartararo takes the blame off his team-mates
Jack Miller and Alex Rins will not be on the MotoGP grid in 2027. Fabio Quartararo does not think that says much about how fast either of them can ride a motorcycle.
Speaking to Crash.net earlier, the Frenchman pushed back on the idea that his Yamaha team-mates have simply been beaten by the field. Both are heading to World Superbikes next year, left with nothing to negotiate with after a season that produced almost nothing.
“I think I’m the one with the most experience of the Yamaha,” Quartararo said. “The 2025 bike, I knew exactly where the limit was and everything. But the V4 is a completely new bike. Toprak, it’s his first year, but Alex and Jack have won races in MotoGP. Alex has won with different manufacturers. And they are really, really fast riders. They are not rookies, and we know how much we struggle.”
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The standings back him up
Twelve rounds into 2026, Yamaha has 73 points in the constructors’ championship. The best finish anyone on the bike has managed is fifth, by Quartararo at the Catalan Grand Prix.
The rider table fills in the rest. Quartararo sits 14th on 55 points. Miller is 19th, Rins 20th, rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu 21st. Three of Yamaha’s four full-time riders are outside the top 18.
The V4 was meant to end this. Yamaha walked away from the inline-four it had raced since 2004 and wrote off the first half of the season as a test phase, expecting the work to convert into results once the summer break was over. The gap has not moved.
No more updates this year
Quartararo, who joins Honda in 2027, expects no further development on the M1 between now and December.
“I think that from now until the end, we will not have any updates on the bike,” he said. “I think Yamaha is fully committed to the 850. I think it’s normal for them, because they know that they are still really, really far from making great results with this bike. But unfortunately, we will keep the same base and try to maximise the results we can.”
Aragon comes next weekend. Same engine, same base, and a lead rider who has stopped pretending otherwise.
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