Quartararo needs to see Yamaha progress before signing 2023 MotoGP deal

The first pre-season test of the 2022 season got underway on Thursday at Jerez, with Quartararo ending up ninth fastest and 0.707 seconds off the pace.

The world champion tested Yamaha’s 2022 bike, but sounded unappetizing when he said the motorcycle was basically the same as the prototype he tested at Misano in September having admittedly expected increasingly new items.

With Yamaha keen to get Quartararo on a deal for 2023 and silly season likely to kick into upper gear over the winter, the 2021 world champion says he will not sign anything surpassing he sees what Yamaha brings to the Sepang pre-season test in February.

“No, I think it\'s still early,” he said when asked well-nigh a 2023 deal with Yamaha.

“I don\'t want to sign anything surpassing Malaysia at least: I want to see the incubation of our bike.

“I think it\'s normal. I don\'t think it\'s normal to sign for 2023 without having started 2022, so I think I know where my value lies.

“I will wait a little while to see how the team positions itself with Yamaha, expressly to see the incubation or not of the new velocipede in Sepang.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I am asking for very important things. Without that, it\'s something that if they don\'t show what I\'m asking for, at least that they try and that there is a small improvement, that\'s good.

“But if I see that they go in a totally variegated direction, it can stupefy my future with Yamaha.”

The key transpiration Quartararo wants to see with the 2022 velocipede is increasingly power, with the Yamaha regularly 8km/h plus lanugo on the Ducatis this season.

When asked by Autosport what his unstipulated feeling on the 2022 velocipede was without day one at Jerez, he said: “Well, we tried a really similar velocipede as Misano… well, to be honest, it was the velocipede of Misano.

“So, we tried that, we tried increasingly things that are a new swingarm, some electronics, anti-wheelie.

“But to be honest it was a really similar test as Misano.

“More work needs to be washed-up to finger an improvement. Still, [there’s] some, like you’d imagine, the velocipede is the first step and we hope for much largest in Sepang.”