Yamaha’s MotoGP chief Lin Jarvis has expressed his concerns. He acknowledges that he fears Honda could hijack his rider Fabio Quartararo.
Quartararo’s contract actually still runs until the 2024 season. However, the French rider has the opportunity to move to another team, including Honda.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘fear’. But I am aware that one of the threats comes from Honda. Honda has always wanted top riders, and Fabio is one of them,” Jarvis said, as quoted by Crash on Wednesday, August 16th.
Lin Jarvis’s concern is quite reasonable, as Yamaha will certainly lose Franco Morbidelli at the end of this MotoGP season. On the other hand, Yamaha did manage to secure Alex Rins.
While Quartararo is indeed still contracted with Yamaha until 2024, so is Alex Rins. So far, Yamaha remains ambitious to extend El Diablo’s contract beyond the 2024 season.
However, for that to happen, the Japanese factory team realizes they must work hard.
One approach is to provide a competitive atmosphere. Because without it, Quartararo might opt to terminate his contract and switch to another team.
Honda has recently been linked with Quartararo. Additionally, issues have arisen about Honda potentially being left without its flagship rider Marc Marquez.
“To be able to defend Fabio, we need a competitive motorcycle. We really need to prove that and show our full focus on building a competitive bike,” Jarvis said.
“The rider line-up for next season will show an interesting dynamic. Whether Marc Marquez stays or retires, continues with Honda or joins another factory team,” the Briton continued.
Since the midpoint of the 2022 MotoGP season, Yamaha seems to have lost its usual edge. However, Jarvis believes Yamaha can bounce back and provide Quartararo with a competitive YZR-M1 motorcycle.
“We had to change our development system. There’s still massive potential in our motorcycle package. We lost competitiveness this season. But two years ago, we won the MotoGP World Championship with Fabio. Furthermore, we led the championship standings until the mid-point of the 2022 season,” Jarvis said optimistically.
“In fact, European factory teams have taken over from Japanese factory teams. But such situations can happen in motorsports, just as in F1,” he concluded.