Japanese culture is marked by tradition, and this is perfectly palpable in MotoGP, where Yamaha and Honda have resisted as much as they could before surrendering to the cruellest evidence and concluding that their methods, infallible until just over five years ago, have become completely obsolete.
Neither of them managed to register a single podium last season, a statistic that confirms the hole they got into and from which they will try to emerge starting Wednesday when the first pre-season tests of 2025 begin at Sepang.
In the previous shakedown, which served as initial contact and ended on Sunday, Fabio Quartararo was the fastest of all, followed by Jack Miller (Pramac), in a good start for the company, while waiting for the favourites to arrive this week, with Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia at the helm.
In Malaysia, Yamaha will once again have four bikes on the track – in addition to those corresponding to the test riders – something it has sorely missed in the last two seasons after letting its satellite team die due to lack of confidence in being able to collect the fee for the deal.
This is very significant because it perfectly reflects the mentality of the Yamaha executives, who primarily saw the agreement with independent teams as a source of income; that is, as another business avenue.
By itself, this approach does not explain the calamitous situation in which Yamaha finds itself at a sporting level. But no one has any doubt that getting rid of two bikes out of the four it had until 2022 has not played in its favour. Rather the opposite, in a stage where the M1 lost its identity and its strong points – agility and traction.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha MotoGP Team, Alex Rins, Yamaha MotoGP Team
Gathering half the data as before and as the competition implies greatly slowing down the development and the possibility of solving the problems that arise, which in recent dates were not precisely few.
This, combined with the grace period that must be given to Max Bartolini, the technical director recruited a year ago from Ducati, before judging his new work protocols, explains why Quartararo and Alex Rins were near the bottom of the timesheets for most of 2024.
To get out of that zone, Yamaha concluded that it was essential to seek allies, and that’s where the new agreement with Pramac as its new support team comes in. The relationship with Paolo Campinoti’s formation will have absolutely nothing to do with…
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