Has Yamaha banished its demons with its 2021 MotoGP bike?

Two races at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar to start the 2021 MotoGP campaign looked destined to feature at least one Ducati victory across the Qatar and Doha Grands Prix. As it turned out, runner-up spot was the best the Desmosedicis could manage courtesy of Pramac’s Johann Zarco.

Instead, the back-to-back wins – in rather unlikely fashion – went to Yamaha. Following pre-season testing, Fabio Quartararo admitted he was “worried” about the overtaking potential of the 2021 M1 as its hefty power deficit to the Ducatis remained for this year courtesy of the ban on engine development for all but KTM and Aprilia over the winter.

But it was the overtaking capabilities of the 2021 Yamaha which ultimately propelled both Quartararo and Maverick Vinales to victory in the opening rounds of the season.

Although engine development has been frozen over the winter, Yamaha has been hard at work developing a more competitive 2021 package following the dismal destruction of its 2020 title hopes as both Quartararo and Vinales suffered with a wildly inconsistent bike. Chief amongst the revisions has been to the chassis, which a Yamaha insider previously told Autosport has been made a bit lighter than its predecessor.

This has manifested itself in the corners, the M1 able to turn much better than it did last year. But Quartararo conceded after the first Qatar round that the “story” of the Yamaha being an easy bike to ride was over, as the 2021 bike required a more aggressive force to extract the maximum from it – though Vinales countered that it needed balance.

“I try to be aggressive but in the same way smooth; I try to brake late and hard, but at the same time I try not to move the bike a lot,” Vinales explained following his Qatar GP win. “And somehow the Yamaha likes this, finally what you need to do is understand the bike and try to help it.

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"Overall, for sure you need to push the bike, it’s not that kind of bike that before was mantequilla [like butter]. It’s not anymore, now you need to push, you need to brake late, you have to open [the throttle] aggressively. But at the same time, you need to be smooth.”

Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Both Vinales and Quartararo’s Qatar victories came in strikingly similar fashion. Vinales was sixth from second on the grid at the start of the first race, but was able to scythe his way through the bikes ahead – Quartararo and four Ducatis – at Turn 10 to eventually open up a gap of over a second to keep him out of the clutches of the rocket ship GP21s. Quartararo was ninth from fifth on the grid after the opening laps, before rising up through the order, using overtaking spots suited to the Yamaha to hit the front on lap 19 and open up an unassailable lead of over a second.

“For the moment I can say overtaking is much better than last year, because I have the feeling like I feel the limit and I know where the limit is,” Quartararo said of the 2021 M1. “I had a great feeling here in Qatar, so let’s see in the other races. But I feel good on the bike.”

Front-end confidence was something both factory Yamaha riders missed last year, both Vinales and Quartararo getting lost on race weekends as a result. Vinales was hit particularly hard by this in the early parts of races with a full fuel load, the Spaniard going AWOL from generally strong grid slots and unable to salvage anything decent after being cut adrift of the podium when his feeling finally returned late on.

"You need to push the bike, it’s not that kind of bike that before was mantequilla [like butter]. It’s not anymore, now you need to push, you need to brake late, you have to open [the throttle] aggressively. But at the same time, you need to be smooth" Maverick Vinales

Because of this new-found front-end confidence, strategy options in the Qatar races while mired in the pack opened up. Quartararo noted last Sunday he turned down his engine early on to save the rear tyre, knowing he would have the bike underneath him to push when the time came. In the first Qatar round, Vinales employed his front-end feel to preserve his rear tyre as he cut through to the lead before unleashing that stored rear grip to move out of reach.

In 2020, Yamaha’s only strategy was to lead from the start and use the M1’s corner speed. This is how Quartararo won the opening two rounds at Jerez, and again at Barcelona – though was helped somewhat by Joan Mir on the Suzuki qualifying so far down the order and getting onto the Frenchman’s rear wheel a lap too late to pass him. Vinales’ Emilia Romagna GP win came in similar fashion, albeit only after long-time leader Francesco Bagnaia slid off his Pramac Ducati late on.

This very much remains the main strategy for Yamaha riders – but it’s now plan A, rather than mission critical. One other trait the 2021 bike seems to have improved is how the Yamaha’s front tyre temperature hasn’t sky rocketed while both Vinales and Quartararo ran deep in the pack in the Qatar races. So, while the gains Yamaha has made with the 2021 bike aren’t ground-breaking, they’ve seemingly targeted specific areas of weakness which previously chained its riders.

There is one key area in need of improvement, which is the race start – particularly for Vinales. He spent all winter working on them, but admits the issue lies more with him than the bike, having dropped from third to 11th at the start of the Doha GP.

Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“The race was good, I enjoyed it a lot, I enjoyed so much on the bike which is really important,” he said after finishing fifth, mirroring Quartararo’s result from the first race, where the Frenchman admits he “rode like a rookie”.

“The bike had great potential, just the start, so it’s something we need to improve – I need to improve, personally. There is no excuse, I need to be a fast guy on the start and I need to work on it right now because looks like on riding we are super-fast, but the start is difficult. The result would be much different with a good start.”

How genuine Yamaha’s Qatar form is remains the key question. The Japanese marque is a 10-time winner at Losail, eclipsing Ducati’s haul of five, and so far it’s the only circuit that’s seen any MotoGP action in 2021 (private tests at Jerez for some, which excludes Yamaha, aside). The Qatar track also generally offers good grip, conditions the Yamaha typically excels in.

Making Quartararo and Vinales’ Qatar performances harder to analyse also is the poor form from Petronas SRT duo Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi. In 2020 SRT and Morbidelli in particular was the reference for Yamaha, despite being on an older ‘A-spec’ bike. But a problem in the Qatar GP left him without points, while the Doha GP yielded just 12th having been forced to revert to an early 2020 set-up which brought about some of the issues he had in the early races of last season.

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Then there’s Rossi on the same spec bike as Quartararo and Vinales, who went from fourth to 12th in the Qatar GP and was only 16th in the second race after registering his worst qualifying in 25 years of grand prix racing in 21st. Their struggles make it hard to tell whether bike or rider is the main issue.

It’s no wonder, then, that both Quartararo and Vinales are keen to get to the Algarve Circuit in two weeks, where all Yamahas but Morbidelli had nightmare races last year, to see how the 2021 M1 truly stacks up.

“I think we need to wait a little bit,” Vinales said when Autosport asked if his 2021 pace in the opening two races relative to last year felt more genuine. “It’s just the first two races, but on the same track. We need to wait, we need to stay patient. We understand the potential, it is good, the bike is working well.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing, Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“But it’s working well in Qatar. Now we will have Portimao, we need to face it with an open mind, we need to be strong. Last year we suffered a little bit, but this year is a new year, we need to be strong and I will try to make the difference. I will try to be stronger and keep working very hard.”

In many ways, Yamaha’s form at the start of 2021 remains just as perplexing as that of the back half of 2020, but for very different reasons. Circumstance may have been on Yamaha’s side in Qatar’s two races, but the way both Quartararo and Vinales won was very much out of line with what we saw last season.

“It’s just the first two races, but on the same track. We need to wait, we need to stay patient. We understand the potential, it is good, the bike is working well"Maverick Vinales

This is encouraging, because even at the start of last year the feedback wasn’t so positive. Quartararo noted ahead of his charge to back-to-back wins at Jerez that the 2020 M1 never felt like his bike from the moment he first rode it in testing, and that feeling remained throughout the season. And Vinales struggled in the second Jerez race to overtake then team-mate Rossi for second, the Spaniard almost certainly helped to the rostrum by the likes of Francesco Bagnaia on the Pramac Ducati and Morbidelli being struck by mechanical issues late on.

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The fact both Vinales and Quartararo seemingly cut through a generally stubborn Ducati defence with ease in Qatar is world’s away from the start of 2020, hinting at a genuinely rejuvenated Yamaha this season.

As such, the Portuguese GP will be arguably Yamaha’s most important race of the year. If it can go to a place of misery 12 months ago and simply be competitive, it can truly start to set its eyes on the ultimate prize.

Race winner Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP