Why Yamaha hasn't learned from Honda and Suzuki's MotoGP mistakes

The stagnation in the development of this year's Yamaha bike, the chief cause of the brand's worst start to a MotoGP season in 16 years, follows the pattern that recently also conditioned Japanese rivals Honda and Suzuki - MotoGP champions prior to 2021.

In the 2022 season-opening Qatar Grand Prix, reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo crossed the finish line in ninth, 10.5 seconds behind winner Enea Bastianini as he took a maiden victory aboard a Gresini-run year-old Ducati.

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Quartararo was the first classified among Yamaha's stable of riders in a black day that served to confirm, almost cruelly, the omens that could already be sensed after the pre-season tests. This result certifies Yamaha's worst start to the season since the 2006 season.

On that occasion, the 11th position of Colin Edwards at the Jerez curtain-raiser would surely have been surpassed by Valentino Rossi had he not been run into by Toni Elias in the first corner of the Andalusian track.

The situation this past weekend in Qatar is much more worrying than that of 16 years ago, as all four M1s on the grid were disappointingly off the pace. Franco Morbidelli - embarking on his first full year as a factory Yamaha rider having spent a season-and-a-bit of the 2019 bike at Petronas SRT - was 11th, 16 seconds behind the winner and six seconds behind Quartararo. Andrea Dovizioso was 14th, 27 seconds behind the winner, and his RNF Racing team-mate Darryn Binder 16th (aboard the 2021 M1), more than 41 seconds behind the Gresini rider.

This debacle of the Iwata-based constructor is nothing more than the materialisation of Quartararo's warnings, which set off alarm bells already in November about the lack of muscle of the new version of the prototype projected for 2022. The current engine freeze makes it practically impossible to revitalise the motor, which is once again occupying the bottom of the speed charts.

It was a chastening opening round for Yamaha to start the 2022 MotoGP season

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

To this must be added the high level of drag on the bike due to the current aerodynamic package, which will probably not be corrected until Mugello. According to Quartararo himself, the one aerodynamic upgrade allowed by the regulations to Yamaha - which operates, alongside all-but Aprilia, as a non-concession manufacturer - is scheduled to be introduced. All this leads to the conclusion that Yamaha has been asleep this winter, that it has not done its homework as most of its rivals did, or at least tried to do.

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For a team to settle into complacency after achieving such an important goal as the one reached in 2021 is understandable. Unlike in other disciplines, the reason for this slowdown in the speed of evolution of the Yamaha does not seem to be a matter of relaxation of its technical division, but rather a matter of conservatism.

To some extent it is understandable that a bike capable of winning a third (six) of the 18 grands prix held in 2021 does not require as severe an upgrade as those with less success. This impression is supported by two consecutive examples that have occurred in the most recent history of the event, and which, coincidentally, also involved two Japanese companies: Suzuki and Honda.

The frustration that currently grips Quartararo is similar to that suffered by Joan Mir last year when he also saw how the evolution of his Suzuki lagged behind, to the point of not even allowing him to fight for the title

"If a bike wins, the Japanese companies are very cautious when it comes to projecting the next year's model," a reputed Yamaha technician with a lot of experience also at Honda tells Autosport.

Another engineer, who in the last 10 years has worked for two of the three Japanese manufacturers, and who now works for one of the three European manufacturers (Ducati, Aprilia and KTM), agrees with him: "The Japanese brands go step by step, especially if their bikes are doing well. It's the European part of the team, which is the one that manages the racing division, that puts the rush on.

"And that's where the balance comes from. At Ducati, Aprilia and KTM, on the other hand, there are times when they go overboard with the amount of things to test, and that can lead to getting lost. Consider what is happening to Ducati," says the source, who refers to the crossroads at which Ducati finds itself with the different development paths it has opened up.

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"It is clear that the work that has been done this winter on the engine has not yielded the expected results. I think they tried, but it didn't work out well," Quartararo replied to this writer at Losail.

Fabio Quartararo had no answer to the top speed of the Ducati riders

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The frustration that currently grips the Frenchman bears many similarities to that suffered by Joan Mir last year. Like Quartararo, the Mallorcan also saw how the evolution of his Suzuki lagged behind, to the point of not even allowing him to fight for the 2021 title, with Mir repeating on more than one occasion that "Suzuki has to work harder than it is doing".

Mir, who flirted with the possibility of seeking a change of scenery in case Hamamatsu did not react, is considered satisfied with the improvements applied to the GSX-RR, especially in terms of top speed, to the extent of having publicly declared his intention to renew with the team that took him to the 2020 championship.

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If Suzuki's story is already significant enough, even more evident is that of Honda. It only realised the need to turn around its RC213V when Marc Marquez disappeared from the scene due to injury in 2020, and the two-wheeled giant got into the worst run of its history. After nine months of absence as a result of the injury to his right arm, the Spaniard reappeared at the third round of 2021, a year in which he was able to win three times.

"Had I won five or six races, Honda would not have changed the bike," acknowledged Marquez in a recent chat with Autosport. "This one is given by the lack of results. In 2018 and 2019 the problems were there, but I was able to win the world championship. So what was the point?" 

"Many times we had the feeling that the new bike was only changed a little bit in the design of the stickers," an authoritative voice from HRC said.

Yamaha has had multiple warnings from the recent past from its rivals and has still fallen into the same trap. It's lucky in many respects that, for all of his suggestions to the media that his future remains open, Quartararo has very scant options available to him for 2023 to move elsewhere.

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But questions do have to be asked of Yamaha now on why it has allowed itself to end up in the situation it has so far in 2022 and whether it will be able to evolve in the way both Honda and Suzuki has to rectify its past problems.

Quartararo's options away from Yamaha appear slim for 2023

Photo by: Akhil Puthiyedath