MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Since winning the MotoGP title in 2021, things have gone downhill for Yamaha. From winning races and consistently fighting for podiums Fabio Quartararo and his teammates have slid slowly down the order, to the point where they are now struggling to get inside the top ten.

The causes of the decline are hard to pinpoint exactly. A switch to a different engine character - adding horsepower at the expense of rideability - played a role, but the biggest factor was that the traditional approach of Japanese manufacturers was unable to keep up with the pace of development of the European factories.

While Ducati, Aprilia, and KTM were willing to bring updates to the track and try them with the risk they would fail, Yamaha and Honda were far more conservative, wanting only to bring parts that had been thoroughly tested and they knew would work to races. While Yamaha and Honda were making small steps, the European factories were progressing in leaps and bounds.

Yamaha were the first factory to recognize they would have to make radical changes to the way they are working if they were to start to close the gap to the European factories. In a process started in late 2022, led by Yamaha Managing Director Lin Jarvis and MotoGP Project Leader Takahiro Sumi, there has been a move to involve Yamaha's European arm YMR (Yamaha Motor Racing) based in Gerno di Lesmo near Milan more directly in the development of the M1.

This has led to the involvement of European engineers with the development of the Yamaha. F1 specialists Dallara have been enlisted to work on aerodynamics, and for the past few seasons, Yamaha have been working with Luca Marmorini on engine development. Meanwhile, Max Bartolini has been brought in as performance engineer to oversee and coordinate the development process.

So Yamaha finds itself at an interesting juncture in their MotoGP project. While still struggling to be competitive on track, Yamaha have made both huge organizational changes and poured a massive amount of effort into the development of the M1. After losing the Petronas team as a satellite squad, Yamaha have lured Pramac away from Ducati to become what is effectively a junior factory squad, with riders paid directly by Yamaha and equal machinery to the factory Monster Energy Yamaha team of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins.

High time, therefore, to get some insight into the state of play at Yamaha, and where the project is at the moment. In Austria, I sat down with Team Director of the Monster Energy Yamaha squad, Maio Meregalli, to find out more. Meregalli talked to me about the changes Yamaha have made, the importance of Pramac, the impact concessions have had for the factory, and the value of having as many wildcards as possible.

Q: How do you see where Yamaha is now compared to, say, a year ago or two years ago?

Maio Meregalli: First of all, I would like to start saying that in these difficulties, because we are facing this lack of performance since a few years, but I think we have been able to really show how Yamaha is determined and fully committed. In this difficult situation we have been able to re-sign with Fabio, that for us has been always a priority. We also wanted to confirm Alex, because we are sure about his capability and what they can bring to the team together, Fabio and him.

But also we were able to get a second factory team, for me Pramac is really an additional value, because from outside, Pramac is technically-wise for me the best independent team in the paddock. So, I’m proud of what Yamaha has been able to do in front of this difficult period.

Then always talking about the commitment. I am here since 2011 and I never saw something like that. The concessions for sure are giving us additional work, but we are really trying to exploit the concessions as much as possible. We are also hiring engineers from other manufacturers. In the past, that never happened. So if you consider that now the technical director is an Italian engineer in a Japanese manufacturer, this also means a lot. It means that we really changed the way to work.

We already start to see the difference, but as you can imagine, this process is very long. We started in Sepang working much more on the bike. We have been always very conservative. We always make small steps, but now if you see our bike it’s different compared to before. We already introduced the second aero package. Leaving Austria, we will go straight to Misano for a two-day test. We will test the third aerodynamic package and we will be able, if the result will be positive as we expect, to homologate this package at the Misano race.

So, we have never been so active. There is a much stronger relationship, collaboration, synergy, between YMC, Yamaha Japan, and YMR, the base we have in Italy. The R&D that we have in Italy is expanding because of this synergy that in the past was unfortunately one way, now it’s two ways. This aspect is fundamental. In my opinion, it has been very important that the people in charge understood the way that we were used to working, that was very good until a few years ago, has now reached the limit. We made this change. As I said before, it’s a long process. But I’m seeing this. Even if it’s tough, but it gives you extra motivation.

Q: How important is Pramac here? IN the past, Yamaha satellite teams were satellite teams, with older bikes and less support. But this looks like more like the Ducati model where you have basically a factory team and a factory junior team almost, where you’re collaborating to move the project forward?