Fabio Q🌠uartararo says he “was ready to leave” Yamaha at the end of the 2024 MotoGP season due to the Japanese brand’s dip in form.

The French𒉰 rider ma🌳de his MotoGP debut with Yamaha in 2019 at Petronas SRT before moving to its factory team in 2021, when he won the title.

Quartararo then went𒁏 from battling for a second championship in 2022 to not even winning ✤a race in 2023, while Yamaha is yet to score a podium this season - with a third in the Jerez sprint stripped from the Frenchman over a tyre pressure penalty.

The 2021 world champion was a key figure in the 2025 rider market, with the Frenchman seriously consiဣdering an of𒈔fer from Aprilia before accepting a big money two-year deal to remain at Yamaha.

In a YouTube interview with ‘Legend’, Quartararo revealed: “Yamaha is a lege𒆙ndary team.

“My dream, when I was little, was to go there because Valentino Rossi&n꧅bsp;was there.

“I was reꩲady to leave this brand; even though it was my dream team, I felt ready to leave.

“🐻And Yamaha made some very big changes. They have made a big investment in the project, hiring a lot of new engineers .

“Even for the brand, for Yamaha, it is not good to be so far be💖hind in its market.

“Unfortunately, you can't ♏get back to the top in [a few] weeks or months; I think it's more like years.

“That's what made✨ me take the decision to stay at Yamaha, seeing meetings with people who came from other brands, who were working on very big projects .

“That's what made me take the step of renewing with Yamaha for the next ꩵtwo years.”

The arrival ꦏof Max Bartolini from Ducati as technical director at Yamaha was a major factor in Quartararo remaining with the Japanese marque.

Over the course of the 2024 campaign, Yamaha has utilis🏅ed its concession benefits to conduct numerous in-season tests and introduce a raft of new items - stepping away from the more cautious approach it has had previously.

That is nꦡow extending as far as Yamaha ditching its inline-four engine philoso🧔phy for a V4 for 2025.

While there has been slow progress for Yamaha in 2024, Qu꧑artararo admits the Japanese marque’s decline in form since 2022 did take a toll on him.

“I've had problems with ꦍthe bike and also mental problems, I think,” he added.

“In the end, when ꧙you spend four years fighting for the title and one year you finish tenth, it's strange.

“It even makes you doubt yo🍸urself, thinking, 'is it 𒁏me, what's happening?’

“In the last two years, w🍨e haven't improved at all, and theꩲ others have made a big step forward.

“At the moment, we're still behind, but I think I've learned a lot about staying calm and above all [trying] to make the bike evolve in the best way po𝓡ssible.

“But it's true that mentally it wasn't easy.”