2022 Yamaha M1 is a good MotoGP bike? It’s a simple question with a simple answer: it depends. If Fabio Quartararo rides it, that’s good enough to win two races, get to the podium in three others and lead the MotoGP 2022 championship by 22 points.
But if anyone other than Fabio Quartararo is riding it, it’s not quite as good. The best result of the trio of Franco Morbidelli, Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder was seventh place, by Morbidelli at Mandalika. That seventh place is one of only two tops for the other Yamahas, Darryn Binder being the other in the same race.
Together, Morbidelli, Dovizioso and Binder scored a total of 40 points. Fabio Quartararo has 147, three times that. And he never finished after any other Yamahas throughout the season.
In fact, the closest any other Yamaha driver has come to Quartararo is Franco Morbidelli’s 11th place, two places behind his teammate, in the season opener in Qatar. Since then, Quartararo and other Yamaha riders have been active on different planets.
Facing the future
Can this be fixed? And what is Yamaha doing to solve this problem? On the Monday after Barcelona, Yamaha only had a handful of parts for the racers to test.
There’s a new swingarm, which offers only minor benefits, another chance to try out the new low-dynamic package used by Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo at Mugello, which Quartararo later dropped. And had the opportunity to try out new engine maps in pursuit of more horsepower, though that was limited.
On the face of it, the test has only limited effect in finding the strength Fabio Quartararo says he needs if he is to successfully defend his MotoGP 2021 crown.
But with engine development frozen in 2022, any major progress will only come in 2023, and the first hint of that bike won’t appear until testing Misano in September.
However, more horsepower will come. That was the assurance Yamaha gave Fabio Quartararo to convince him to sign a new contract for the next two seasons. They are supporting this by bringing in new engineers, some from Formula 1, to help find more horses from the Yamaha M1.
“For me, I’m always pushing, and more than that, we need to push to have more power,” Quartararo told us after the test.
“I am sure they are working extremely hard to give us a new engine for 2023 and more power because I always say that, but because it is true that if you do everything perfectly Perfect, you can win. It’s not a matter of power or anything.”
“But when you are in a difficult situation, power is what can change your race,” Quartararo points out. There was a time when he got stuck behind faster straight bikes, despite potentially faster lap times, and that was annoying.
“I was sixth or seventh and I couldn’t get through and I was faster. I can fight Pecco to win but. But we are behind, so this is why I think the most important thing is to have strength and not really think about other things.”
All this focus on horsepower comes at the expense of areas that could benefit other Yamaha riders.
While horsepower is always a good thing, they need help getting the rear tires to turn up while the bike is at full tilt and chew through the rear quickly. They need help transferring and more feedback. They need brake assist to accelerate into corners.
Should Yamaha do more to address the concerns of Franco Morbidelli, Andrea Dovizioso, Darryn Binder, and focus less on what Quartararo wants?
“Yamaha is engaged to improve on what Fabio is asking for, and this is normal and this is the right thing to do, because he is leading the championship they won last year,” Andrea Dovizioso answer when asked. “It’s a priority and this is normal.”
That creates problems, of course. “What he’s asking for is different from most riders, because he can use the bike’s potential where it’s good, but others can’t,” explains Dovizioso.
“So we’re asking for different things. But what we are asking is something very difficult to create. It is very difficult to know what you have to change. It took time, it cost money, and if I put myself in Yamaha’s shoes, I would probably make the same decision.”
Dovizioso admits there is also perhaps a little bit of fear of change when compared to Casey Stoner of Ducati and Marc Marquez of Honda. Maybe Yamaha was afraid to kill the goose that was laying golden eggs if they changed the bike to match other riders.
Dovizioso told us, “I think one of the reasons they don’t invest a lot of attention or money in it is because they’re scared about it. “And I can understand because when you change something, nobody knows the right things to do. You have to try a lot of things, so it’s very dangerous in their situation. So it’s tough.”
The consolation is that Yamaha has a proven path to winning races, running past Fabio Quartararo. “It’s a positive thing because they have something, it’s working, but it’s hard to be sure,” Dovizioso said.
Is throwing money at Fabio Quartararo a simpler and quicker path to success? “Ha! That’s for sure,” laughs Dovizioso. “But you know you have to choose a strategy, so if this is your goal, it’s good to do it.”
In the long run, building a better bike is a more sustainable proposition. Dovizioso explains: “It would be better to have a bike that suits more riders because you can act as a producer.” But it’s not easy to create that situation and not the one they’re in right now.”
And so Yamaha found itself in a predicament. They have a rider who is winning and leading the championship, and has a clear and precise understanding of the bike, knowing how to take advantage of every performance from the M1.
And they have a bike that, for riders who can’t ride the way Fabio Quartararo does, compensates for time on the brakes and manages acceleration with delicate throttle control, making them uncompetitive.
If they change the M1 to make it more competitive with Morbidelli, Dovizioso, Binder, they risk breaking the bike for Quartararo, taking away the strengths he was using to succeed.
But if they leave the car as it is and just listen to the Quartararo, they risk being left with an uncompetitive car if for some reason the French driver leaves Yamaha or is unable to race.
In short, Yamaha is better off putting all the eggs in one basket, the basket marked Fabio Quartararo. After all, Honda did it for Marc Marquez and finished with six MotoGP titles.
Whether it will be successful in the long term, only history will tell. But racing is a very short-term business, so that’s the bridge they’ll cross when there’s no other choice.
Photo: Yamaha Racing
