• Valentino Rossi thinks Yamaha will be crazy if they don’t hold on to Fabio Quartararo.

• Quaratararo’s contract with PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team ends at the end of 2020.

• Moving up to the factory squad means he will replace either Rossi or Vinalez.

Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi says that Yamaha will be crazy if they do not hold on to MotoGP rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo from 2021 and beyond.

Speaking to autosport.com, Rossi says that Yamaha will “pull out all the stops” to make that happen. He added that it is very important that the factory retains Quartararo for the long term. It would mean a promotion to the full factory team in 2021, at the expense of either Rossi or Maverick Vinalez.

“I expected that he can be very fast, because he was always very fast from when he was young, but nobody expected like this,” said Rossi.

He added that that the Frenchman did something special and everybody would want him to ride for them.

“At 21 (years old) for sure Yamaha will want want Quartararo, if not it’s crazy.”

Quartararo has been the revelation of the 2019 season. His current form flies in the face of one-time critics who thought that it was a foolhardy for the PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team principal Dato’ Razlan Razali to have picked him over “other better riders.”

The French rider had not achieved much success in Moto2, except for a single win in Catalunya last year. His PETRONAS Yamaha SRT teammate Franco Morbidelli was the 2018 Moto2 champion, finishing way ahead in the championship.

However, he seemed to have found something which clicked in the satellite Yamaha and often finishing ahead of the factory riders. To date, he has scored four pole positions, finished on the podium five times and set two fastest laps.