Despite the chance to change manufacturers Fabio Quartararo decided to keep his faith in Yamaha.

Fabio Quartararo signed for Yamaha in 2019, where he has stayed for six seasons. However, his future with the Japanese manufacturer was not always guaranteed in recent years.

Yamaha has struggled for results since Quartararo won the 2021 MotoGP World Championship. The French rider has recently admitted that he could have changed manufacturers in 2023.

But after a conversation with Yamaha’s MotoGP technical director, Max Bartolini, the former Champion decided to stay.

“In September 2023 I was really considering changing brands,” Quartararo admitted in an interview published on the Spanish website Motosan.

“I asked many things: I need this, I need engineers of this quality, I need [...] to really believe in the project and since the end of November 2023 they have brought people, they have brought a very large budget for aerodynamics, engine, new people.

“I was able to have a fairly long meeting with Max Bartolini.

“Really in the team and in Yamaha there is a lack of personnel like Max, but I stayed above all because the project was big, they have invested a lot, and also the loyalty that Yamaha has made me move up to MotoGP at the time when I was nobody.

“With everything I have asked and everything they have done, it has also weighed on the account.”

'I haven't really bet everything on a new engine.'

The one outlier for Yamaha's MotoGP project is that they are the sole manufacturer that still uses an inline-four engine. The other manufacturers all use V4 engines, which Yamaha is in the process of producing.

The engine is supposed to put Yamaha on a level playing field with the other manufacturers on the grid. However, the engine is still in the early stages of development and the Yamaha MotoGP riders are yet to test it.

Despite the new engine in production Quartararo is not certain that it will cure all of Yamaha's issues.

"I think it's a phase, especially that we have to do because we really know that the potential is where the V4 is,” Quartararo said.

“We see Ducati, Aprilia, KTM, also Honda, because there are really things that are worse than us but other things that are much better.

“We'll have to see a lot of things but I haven't really bet everything on a new engine.”