
It has been a turbulent time for the Japanese manufacturers. Yamaha and Honda have dominated MotoGP for years, but now they find themselves struggling to score points, far removed from their former competitive selves. Monster Energy Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo went from winning the MotoGP crown in 2021, to finishing runner up to Pecco Bagnaia last year, to languishing down in eleventh place in the championship, 149 points behind the leader Bagnaia.
At least Yamaha are in better shape than Honda. The 2023 Yamaha M1 is not a bad bike, it is just slow, with aggressive power delivery. Quartararo managed a podium in Austin, and another in the sprint race in Assen, showing that in the right conditions, the bike still has a chance to be competitive.
That is not going to be enough to allow Quartararo to compete for a championship over a full season, however. To achieve that, much bigger changes are needed, both in terms of engineering and the entire development process.
The person charged with overseeing the European side of that process is Yamaha Motor Racing's Managing Director Lin Jarvis. He is the counterpart to Takahiro Sumi, who leads Yamaha's Motorsports Development Division, and Kazutoshi Seki, who is MotoGP Group Leader and the YZR-M1 Project Leader. Improving the synergy between the European and Japanese parts of Yamaha's MotoGP project is going to be key to making progress.
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