Yamaha Admits Valentino Rossi Warned Team About Bike Issues A Decade Ago

Behind Closed Doors at Yamaha After Quartararo Frustration

That disappointment continued to develop as he revealed there was no progress from Yamaha, causing him to perform below his maximum potential. Rumors then emerged that Quartararo would move to Honda for the 2027-2028 season before the French rider tested Yamaha with a V4 engine. This situation also triggered the heating up of Quartararo’s relationship with Yamaha. Last week in Misano, Quartararo acknowledged that he and Yamaha had held a closed meeting after the Grand Prix Aragon as an effort to defuse tension between both parties.

Fabio Quartararo stated as reported by Motorsport Magazine that out of frustration they had said things that were perhaps not quite right, adding that they held a meeting and everything had been resolved.

Quartararo is one of the big stars within Yamaha after Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Maverick Vinales departed. When first riding a Yamaha motorcycle in the MotoGP class at Sepang, Quartararo surprised many people with his brilliant performance. After the 2021 season opener in Qatar, Quartararo carved his own path as the leading rider of the Tuning Fork manufacturer.

Massimo Meregalli Admits Valentino Rossi Warned Yamaha Ten Years Ago

Yamaha management now concedes that the warning signs were visible long before Quartararo arrived. Valentino Rossi returned to Yamaha in 2013 after a brief stint with Ducati at the beginning of the 2010s, and then spent the rest of his MotoGP career with the manufacturer based in Iwata. However, Rossi was not able to add to his world title collection after returning to Yamaha, and Fabio Quartararo’s title in 2021 became Yamaha’s last world championship as well as the first for the team since Jorge Lorenzo in 2015.

According to team director Massimo Meregalli, Rossi flagged fundamental structural problems approximately ten years ago, but management failed to act because individual brilliance masked the flaws.

Yamaha MotoGP Team Director Massimo Meregalli admitted that the problems they began experiencing from year to year had been masked by him and his ability.

Meregalli stated that the problem was also experienced by other Yamaha riders, including Valentino, Maverick, and Dovizioso, but thanks to Quartararo’s brilliant performance, everything was covered up, which gradually became a boomerang for Yamaha itself. Quartararo almost became champion again in 2022, but Francesco Bagnaia managed to turn things around and seize the title with Ducati. Since then, Yamaha has not felt another MotoGP world championship.

Meregalli added that they had several structural issues and Valentino had highlighted them 10 years ago, but somehow they kept maintaining the status quo, figuring they had the best rider and the bike was functioning well while perhaps other teams back then were not as good as they are now, which all allowed them to survive but not develop.

European Manufacturers Surge Ahead While Yamaha Fights to Catch Up

While Yamaha failed to evolve, other manufacturers adapted rapidly, such as Ducati moving quickly to bring its rider to capture the world championship title.

He concluded that Ducati had truly elevated its performance and technology to a high level and other European manufacturers were also very active and quick to react, noting that while their own situation was different, they had now strengthened the team with experts from other manufacturers and continued to increase their knowledge so that they were now truly moving forward, even though other manufacturers would not wait.