Fabio Quartararo caused an immediate impact when he arrived in MotoGP in 2019 without an impressive track record in the lower categories and started fighting for top positions. He became champion in 2021 and fought for the title in 2022, but last year he was only able to reach tenth place in the World Championship – finding a Yamaha YZR-M1 much less competitive than rival bikes.
Carlo Pernat does not consider the Frenchman as a title contender this year, but he explained to MOW Mag that he still sees him as one of the best in the field: ‘I don’t leave him out, Yamaha leaves him out. Fabio Quartararo, at the moment, is probably the fastest and highest-performing rider in the entire paddock, but with that bike, you won’t go anywhere‘.
That said, the rider manager believes that Quartararo could enter the fight if Yamaha makes considerable improvements: ‘It is also true that Yamaha is a giant and perhaps in the last few months the Japanese engineers have managed to come up with a revolutionary project. If that is the case, Quartararo will also be in the game‘.
