Yamaha have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. With Franco Morbidelli still out of the picture due to injury, and with Maverick Vinales being let go from his contract thanks to the incident in Styria, the factory now finds itself two men down in the middle of a season where they were hoping to challenge for the manufacturer’s championship. It clearly hasn’t been an easy process finding replacement riders either, with something of a rotating door effect leading to multiple riders stepping in for different rounds. Add to this the fact that they are set to lose Valentino Rossi at the end of the season, representing one of their longest-serving riders and a big draw card for sponsorships and fans, and it’s safe to say that things haven’t been going smoothly of late.
At the very least they should be able to rely on Fabio Quartararo to keep the boat afloat. The Frenchman has had a spectacular season so far, and after eleven races sits atop the championship with a 47-point advantage over his closest rivals. This is a Quartararo we haven’t seen before, with wins and podiums coming with real consistency and a clear motivation to claim his first world championship. For him to be doing so well means that the bike underneath him must clearly be a good package, right?
Well, let’s stop for a second and think about a different factory instead. Honda have found themselves in a downward spiral over the last two years with their results plummeting across the board, and it seems like they haven’t been able to find the cure yet. Only two riders from their lineup have been able to score podiums in the last two years – the Marquez brothers – and not with any particular consistency, either. Obviously they were severely hampered by the absence of Marc Marquez for all of 2020 and the start of 2021, but even now they seem to be missing something of what they once had.
The thing is, there’s no real excuse for Marc’s absence to cause such massive issues within a factory like Honda. Honda have a reputation as one of the most dominant factories in modern MotoGP, and their Repsol factory team is held up as one of the dream teams for young riders to aspire towards. Think of the names of riders that have found success with this team – Rossi, Hayden, Pedrosa, Dovizioso, Stoner, just to name a few. With a history like theirs, seeing them down the bottom of the current manufacturers standings is humbling and frankly disappointing.
Their problem really does seem to lie with Marc. When the Spaniard jumped on board the Honda back in 2013 he found immediate success, and went on to win his first MotoGP world title with them in his rookie season. Since then he’s gone on to win a further five titles for the Japanese brand (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), and still holds a massive list of records that the sport will struggle to surpass anytime soon. Clearly, much of this comes from Marc’s raw talent and ability to ride a motorcycle on the edge of it’s limits, but the bike was responsible for much of the success as well, at least in the early years.
I say early years, because from around 2018 onwards there started to be complaints from within the factory. Other riders, particularly Crutchlow, started to complain that they were struggling to find any kind of consistency with the Honda, and the results started to reflect that. 2018 marked the first season Dani Pedrosa failed to win a race since he stepped up to the premier class, and he retired at the conclusion of that season. LCR riders Nakagami and Crutchlow struggled to find any kind of repeat success, with Crutchlow in particular spending the next three years as one of the more unpredictable finishers in any given race. And yet Marquez continued to win world titles, and Honda management continued to defer the blame from their bike.
It wasn’t exactly difficult to see what the problem was. Honda had put all of their eggs into one basket, and had begun focusing purely on producing a motorcycle that Marc Marquez could win world titles on, shafting all the other riders in the process. Marc’s riding style is unlike most other riders, particularly the older ones who had preceded his time in the sport like Pedrosa, so this line of production was leading to the creation of a machine that only he could find the true potential of. At the time, it was certainly difficult to argue with their logic when Marc was still dominating the championship standings every season, but the moment he disappeared from the picture the real damage became immediately apparent.
Honda now finds themselves in a hole that they dug themselves. With Marc still recovering from his monster injury last year, their results rest on the shoulders of a trio of riders who are struggling to produce any kind of reasonable results with the bike. Pol Espargaro and Alex Marquez are both exceptionally talented riders, but have a combined four top-8 finishes so far this season. Takaaki Nakagami has been the shining light for Honda during this period, managing to score some of their best results since the start of 2020, but even he hasn’t managed to score a single podium since stepping up to the class. Many of their competitors have taken massive steps forward, and it seems like Honda are just struggling to turn their fortunes around.
Looking back to Yamaha, we can see some similar issues beginning to brew. Despite winning the first race of the season, one of Vinales’ biggest complaints leading up to his termination was a lack of support from the factory as they continued to develop Quartararo’s winning formula. Morbidelli had similar complaints in the first half of the season, as despite his second place finish in the championship last season he was given a year-old bike for the 2021 campaign and a distinct lack of factory support. To an outside observer, it would appear that their focus is increasingly being drawn into Quartararo and pushing his success, and they simply can’t afford to do that.
Comparatively, the likes of Ducati and KTM have made massive steps forward over the last few seasons, and their success seems to come from a combination of good riders and good support. Neither factory has really had a single rider stand out above the other since Dovizioso in 2017-19, and they have instead focused on creating a bike that can be taken to success by any number of their riders. This gives them a competitive edge over the likes of Yamaha and Honda – when you have two or three riders capable of winning any given weekend, it boosts the points you can expect in the team’s and manufacturer’s standings, too. When Quartararo and Marquez have bad weekends, their whole factories suffer.
On the bright side, it’s not too late for Yamaha to learn from Honda’s mistakes. They still have a bike that can be competitive in the hands of other riders – Vinales and Morbidelli both have podiums to their names this year – but they do appear to be teetering towards the edge on that front. If they continue to put all their eggs into the one basket, they will likely continue to see a massive amount of success with Quartararo. But when he stops winning for them – be it injury, a change of team, or any mental health issues that teams continue to push down from their riders – they had better have a plan in place to stop the fall.
Solomon Talks Bikes 
Great blog
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