MotoGP | 2020 | Round 2 | Spain | Jerez | July 24-26

They interviewed Yamaha Europe boss (formerly Yamaha France boss) Eric de Seynes earlier this afternoon during WSBK FP2 about Quartararo and Baz. That was very insightful, and might answer some of your questions. Let me see how much I can remember…

He said that he had been watching Quartararo (like everyone else) come through the Spanish Moto 3 championship with the best young prospects in the world, which he won twice by the time he was 15. Even though things didn't go as well in world championship Moto 3, he knew that there were reasons for that, which I have explained here once or twice.

Then there were some more disappointments in Moto 2, and he really didn't like the way Sito Pons treated Quartararo, basically badmouthing him and offering no mentorship. He was really impressed with what Quartararo did when he found himself on the lone Speedup chassis with no one else providing information to improve the bike.

He did the same thing he had done for Zarco, loaning a couple of R6s to Quartararo to help with his training.

He had negotiated a A-spec package for Zarco with Japan on the new Petronas satellite team in 2018. The Zarco decided to go to KTM, so they gave the package to Morbidelli and it needed a young rider for the B-spec bike. Yamaha showed him a short list of three or four names, and he told him to pick Quartararo. About a week later, he traveled to Suzuka for the 8 hours and the Yamaha bosses told him that they had taken his advice and chosen Quartararo.

They were very impressed with the kid through the early part of the 2019 season, and decided to upgrade him to the A-spec engine. He says he gives Yamaha a lot of credit for changing their ways and thinks that because it is really not the way they work.

When they started negotiating the 2021 deal, he and Eric Mahé (Quartararo's manager) agreed that the focus should be on negotiating a A-spec package for 2020 as a condition for signing for 2021. They never mentioned money, said that they would take whatever they were offered but they wouldn't budge on the spec package. Again, Japan was very impressed that the bike was more important than money and the rest is what we've been seeing.

Not that it's relevant here but he said that negotiations are ongoing to move Baz to factory status.

p.s. This shit was too long. I'm not proofreading it. I'll let Garf find the typos so he can have a win and feel good about himself.

 

I am hearing rumors of Portomão. Other than the bumps, that track is wild.

 

HPPT. Thanks for sharing.

Who else would like to Quartararo spin some laps training on an R6?

 

Thanks for sharing! Very interesting... Q's great attitude may have been enough to get him signed. So much of this sport is mental.At least, that last .5 seconds per lap sure is.

 

Funny you should bring that up. One of the things he said was that the first time Quartararo got a pole position in Moto 2, there was just himself, the kid's parents and his manager. Very quiet, no big gathering around them, like barely anyone noticed. He said he was very impressed with Quartararo's quiet enjoyment of his pole position, not acting cocky at all, and that might have been the moment he really decided to push for Yamaha to take Fabio.

 

The zero points for MM93

 

Makes sense... I get that vibe from him. Nice guy, hard worker.

 

Fabio’s attitude is the reason I pegged him over Vinales to take the ‘ship this season. Fabio seems to take things in stride where Mav gets flustered.

 

And I think Petronas is really in it to win it. Will be interesting what happens when VR46 gets on the team. If he starts to podium, factory Yamaha may perform seppuku, and I'm sure VR46 will make them aware that they suck.

 

Portimao is an awesome track in an absolutely beautiful place. Would love to see gp race there. There is so much elevation change I think there would be a lot of front wheels in the air. Tv doesn’t do it justice.

 

@BigBird its time for a new thread

 

This one was doing so well....onto the next round

 

Looks good to me. Perfect in fact.
In all seriousness, a pretty cool story. It’s always neat to be able to hear some of the behind the scenes, inside info etc. It also shows just how tenuous these things are with riders coming up the ranks and how one situation or event here and there can have long lasting consequences as the seasons go on. Pretty cool. And no small feat with getting Japan to break somewhat with their rigid structured thought and way of doing business.

I don’t need your charity,
I give this an A- grade.

 

It’s crazy how fast Petronas got up to speed. They were fast right out the gate last year. Morbidelli has been overshadowed by Fabio, but Franco is doing a fine job.

What’s the background on the Petronas team anyway? Did they absorb elements of Tech 3’s old Yamaha operation?

People have been talking about a VR46 Yamaha team, but at this point some kind of tie in with Petronas would seem to make more sense.

Hopefully when Valentino gets to Petronas he can still contend for the podium and occasional wins and sticks around until he’s 50.

With the way Marc rides, I wouldn’t be that surprised if Valentino is still racing after Marc leaves.

 

Let's not kill this one quite yet. We are fast approaching page 46. It's a portent.

 

Human elements? No.

 

Petronas hired well.

Wilco was a good catch, among others.

 

I wish Fabio would stay with the Petronas team. I feel like moving him to the factory team is gong to be a curse. "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" The team has a magic like feel that doesn't come around often in racing....even with Franco....it's such a good team.

 

Many have said their budget is actually larger than the factory team’s. I don’t know if true but It is believable. I look at Petronas as wanting to be a factory team though so I’m sure the merger will happen sooner or later.