The year 2024 will certainly be one of extreme importance for Yamaha in MotoGP. Still without a satellite team, and with a bike in clear competitive deficit to the best bike on the grid, and with Fabio Quartararo already showing great concern for the future of the M1 in terms of what it can bring to bear against its rivals on the track, this year promises to be decisive.
Looking at its riders, on the one hand it will have Álex Rins making his debut with an M1, after a year with the RC213V – where he even took a victory, the only one of 2023 for Honda, with the LCR – and on the other hand the former world champion and the team’s main reference Fabio Quartararo.
Since 2022, the frenchman has complained about the M1’s lack of competitiveness compared to the others, and the results on the track, although overall positive here and there, have been nothing more than that, with victories being a long way off.
The tests in Valencia showed a little of what the character of the M1 could be in 2024, but Quartararo was somewhat excited, although not so much given the many problems he still sees needing to be resolved. He has a contract until the end of the year and the Japanese manufacturer will have to present a bike capable of convincing the #20 to stay with the team, which doesn’t seem easy when there are… eight Desmosedici on the track, not to mention that Quartararo has already been linked to a place in a Ducati team for 2025, by the international press.
Even if Ducati doesn’t supply everyone with the GP24, the truth is that the GP23 has enough performance to still be a benchmark, as Marc Márquez can tell, he who was great at the first test with Gresini Racing at the very end of the season at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.
There is also the question of the satellite team, which Yamaha has been without since RNF Racing, now Trackhouse Racing, agreed to become Aprilia’s partner.
There has long been talk of the possibility that Valentino Rossi’s Pertamina Enduro VR46 MotoGP Team could become a Yamaha satellite in 2025, since its contract with Ducati expires at the end of the season, but even then it’s worth considering the possibility: will the team be willing to leave the Desmosedici, which has brought so much joy to Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio’s team, and go with the M1? The future is anyone’s guess, but even for that Yamaha may have to show «something more».
Rins could even lead the team to victories, as he did in 2023 with LCR Honda, on a bike that is far from being the most competitive, and Quartararo is always a rider to consider, but the future is anyone’s guess, although there are some certainties: 2024 will be almost an «all or nothing» year for Yamaha in MotoGP.