Quartararo says why Rossi should consider Petronas

Last year’s breakout star Quartararo will replace seven-time premier class champion Rossi at the factory Yamaha squad next year, following a debut 2019 campaign in which he scored six pole positions and seven podiums.

Rossi appears to be moving closer to securing a place at the Petronas squad with full factory support, after his original plans to take a decision after the opening six or seven races were scuppered by the coronavirus-enforced delay to the 2020 season. 

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Quartararo gave his reasons for why Rossi should join Petronas next year. 

“I would say that it is a family,” Quartararo said of MotoGP’s newest team. “I am a person who when working is 100 percent focused on what I have to do. 

“If you have to be 10 hours on full, there is no problem. But when I’m done, I’m messing around until it’s time to go back to work. That combination of professionalism and good vibes is what defines our team.

“I do not know how an official team works, but I doubt that it is more professional than ours.”

Quartararo recently expressed his hope that Rossi fans wouldn’t “hate” him for taking the Italian rider’s place at Yamaha next year.

After narrowly losing out on victory to world champion Marc Marquez in the San Marino and Thailand Grands Prix last season, and equipped with full works support this year, Quartararo is expected to be a major title contender.

Regularly beating the works Yamaha pairing last season, Quartararo has marked out similar performances as his aim for this coming season. 

When asked if he placed importance on beating the works Yamaha riders in 2020, he said: “I will not say that it is not important, because beating the two official riders running with a satellite team is always a good thing. That motivates you and it is not unusual.

“Last year my engine produced 500rpm less than the rest, [my bike] did not have a carbon fork [to begin with] and little by little I was earning that. My goal was to show that I was very close to them and sometimes even ahead.”