Yamaha Motor Racing Official Press Release (Paddock-GP translation):
YAMAHA FACTORY RACING MOTOGP TEAM ADDS QUATARO TO ITS RIDERS ROSTER FOR 2021-2022
Gerno di Lesmo (Italy), 29th January 2020
It is with great pleasure that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces the signing of Fabio Quartararo with Team Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
The Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team is delighted to welcome fabio quartararo in his team for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Last year's results showed that Quartararo is a unique talent and a rider with a bright future in MotoGP. The 20-year-old from Nice, France, achieved seven podium finishes (5x second place and 2x third place) in his first season with the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, which was at the time a brand new satellite team from Yamaha. He came close to his first victory in the premier category on several occasions. Even though that wasn't the case, his outstanding performance impressed many in 2019. In the end, he secured fifth place in the overall MotoGP standings, earning him the title of best rider in independent team with 27 points, as well as the title of “Rookie of the Year” with 100 points ahead of the second.
In 2020, Quartararo will once again be a rider for the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, completing the second year of his current two-year contract. But this season he will ride a factory YZR-M1. Urban artist he will have Yamaha's full support throughout the upcoming season, as well as when he moves to the factory team in 2021.
In 2021 and 2022, Quartararo will be the partner of Maverick Viñales, whose two-year contract extension with the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team was announced yesterday.
Lin Jarvis: "We are very pleased that Fabio is joining the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP team for 2021 and 2022. His results in his first year in MotoGP have been sensational. His 6 pole positions and 7 podiums in the 2019 season were a clear sign of his brilliance and his exceptional driving skills. Inviting him to join Team Yamaha Factory Racing after completing his contract with PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team was a logical step.
“For the upcoming season he will be equipped with a factory-spec YZR-M1 and he will receive the full support of Yamaha.
“Fabio is only 20 years old, but he already shows great maturity on and off the bike, and we are delighted to have him join us in 2021. Fabio and Maverick will give us all, within the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP team, a great motivation to continue developing the YZR-M1 and leave nothing to chance in our quest for victories in the MotoGP World Championship".
Fabio Quartararo: "I am delighted with what my management has achieved in recent months with YMC. It wasn't easy to establish, but now I have a clear plan for the next three years and I'm really happy.
“I will work hard, as I did last year, and I am extremely motivated to achieve great performances. I feel like the winter period is too long, and I'm really excited to go to the Sepang test next week to ride my new YZR-M1, as well as meet and work with my team again.
“I would like to thank YMC and the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, who gave me the opportunity to enter the MotoGP category in 2019. I will give everything to make them proud again this year".
NOTES
Fabio Quartararo, born in Nice (France) on April 20, 1999, became the first non-Spanish rider since Stefan Bradl (2007) to win the CEV Repsol Moto3 title, in 2013. At the start of the 2014 season, he had not not old enough to move up to the world championship level, so he competed again in the CEV Repsol Moto3 competition, winning the title once again. In 2015, he turned 16 and was officially old enough to make his debut in the World Championship, in the Moto3 category.
Quartararo's Grand Prix career highlights include: two second places in Moto3 in 2015, a victory in Moto2 (Catalonia) and a second place in 2018, as well as five second places and two third places in the premier class in 2019. Last year, the young rider won MotoGP's Best Rookie Rider of the Year and Best Independent Team Rider, finishing fifth overall.
Age: 20 years old
Height: 1,77 m
Weight: 66kg
Total Grand Prix completed: 86
Grand Prix victory: 1
Grand Prix podiums: 11
Pole positions in Grand Prix: 9
World Championship titles: 0
MotoGP
2019 – 5th, 0 wins
Moto2
2018 – 10th, 1 victory
2017 – 13th, 0 victory
Moto3
2016 – 13th, 0 wins
2015 – 10th, 0 wins
Paddock-GP translation
Article to come…
