As Motorsport.com Italia reports, Fabio Quartararo is enduring what is likely his worst campaign since arriving in MotoGP under the Yamaha banner. The Japanese Grand Prix weekend at Motegi was supposed to offer a glimmer of hope after a promising seventh-place finish on Friday earned the Frenchman a direct pass to Q2. Unfortunately, that early speed vanished during qualifying, where he could only manage 12th and was promptly relegated to a fourth-row start that rendered his Friday efforts entirely useless.
Things went from difficult to damaging once the lights went out. During the Sprint, Quartararo scraped together a single point by crossing the line in ninth. Sunday's main event proved even tougher as he finished 12th, falling well short of stronger weekends earlier in the year like France, Barcelona, or Germany. This marked his final appearance at Motegi aboard a Yamaha before making a switch to rival manufacturer Honda for next season.
The core of the disaster, as Quartararo explained at the end of the day, was a staggering lack of efficiency from the machine underneath him. "My last home race with Yamaha was very complicated," he admitted after a grueling 24-lap grand prix. The problems started early and bit hard. "I had a lot of consumption issues from the seventh lap, which prevented me from opening the throttle beyond 70% from that moment on. This engine not only lacks power, but it also consumes a lot."
The warning signs were blindingly obvious from the cockpit long before the chequered flag. "On the dashboard of the bike I have a green, an orange, and a red light, to know which consumption mode I am in. And right from the start here the light was already red," the rider noted, pointing out that even other competitors faced fuel management dilemmas over the weekend.
Despite the misery, the 27-year-old took the setback with a philosophical shrug, viewing it simply as "another experience for the future." That future has a very specific date attached: December 1, when his current obligations conclude and he climbs aboard a Honda RC214V for the post-season test in Valencia, sampling machinery outside of the M1 family for the very first time in his premier-class career.
It marks a stark contrast for a rider who stepped up to the premier class in 2019 with the Petronas squad before joining the factory Yamaha outfit and taking the world championship crown in 2021, followed by a runner-up finish the next year. Now, sitting 15th in the overall standings with just 66 points, he is wading through the toughest season of a world championship journey that began back in 2015.
