Quartararo has won four races so far in the 2021 season and is currently leading the overall standings with 47 points ahead of the British Grand Prix this weekend in Silverstone.
The second-best Yamaha rider in the overall standings is seventh-placed Maverick Vinales, who took just one win and another podium before being ousted from the team for attempting to blow up his motorcycle’s engine at the Styrian GP.
Valentino Rossi scored only 28 points on the third factory M1 in 2021 and is in 19th place overall.
Crutchlow has observed that the Frenchman doesn’t do anything radically different on the Yamaha in order to be as fast as him, while also praising his “stubbornness” in setting up the bike.
“Nothing, the settings are pretty close,” replied Crutchlow when asked if Quartararo was doing anything special on his Yamaha.
“They all prefer something different than what I use on the test team, but what Maverick used at the beginning of the season when he won was what I used in testing.
“Fabio, he rides a little differently, the bigger the guy, the less the bike moves, the smaller the guy, the more the bike moves.
“So in some areas I prefer the bike a little bigger. So Fabio makes the difference because the others have what he has, and so do I when I test.
“Well, he drives fantastic, he drives great, it is also great to work with.
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“But I like that too… with Maverick, I like working with Maverick because he listens and when you say it’s better he takes it.
“I like Fabio because he doesn’t take it, on the other hand because he then holds on to his weapons and gets along well with what he has.
“But in the end I’ll find some things that they’ll use too. He feels comfortable with his attitude, my attitude on my bike will never work for Fabio.
“But my electronics or a linkage or a swing arm that I find will do it, and some of it has.
“But I like his stubbornness of ‘this is what I ride, I don’t have to touch the bike’ which he very rarely does and he just rides it and is very, very good.
“But at 21 you don’t worry about the bike’s setting, just about going fast. You just want to be at the top of the leaderboards.”
Crutchlow will be Quartararo’s partner in the Yamaha factory team this weekend at Silverstone in place of the sacked Vinales.
It’s still unclear whether Crutchlow – who retired in late 2020 – will complete the 2021 season with Yamaha.