Yamaha approaches the 2023 MotoGP preseason with some doubts about the engine. Lin Jarvis, Managing Director, takes stock of the situation.
Fabio Quartararo repeats like a mantra that he wants more power for his Yamaha M1. He’s been doing it for over a year, even before claiming the 2021 world champion. homologate. So they had to turn around and return to the 2021 version for the 2022 season as well.
It seemed that everything went well, beyond all expectations, but in the second part of the championship, reality came to the surface. The M1 could not compete with the Ducati GP22, both in terms of top speed and aerodynamics. Furthermore, he had lost that historical advantage when cornering which has always distinguished the Yamaha, par excellence the easiest bike to ride even for a rookie. In the last two years it has also lost this characteristic, forcing the top management of the company to run for cover.
Yamaha with engine doubt
In an interview compiled by Crash.net, Lin Jarvis recognizes the technical flaws: “We entered the year knowing we hadn’t made a significant improvement in power, speed and performance“. In 2020 and 2021 they also had to deal with engine valve problems, a sign that something was not going in the right direction in the engine department. Hence the arrival of Luca Marmorini and his staff to put Yamaha’s ideas and the organization chart of the racing department in order. “We realized that we needed to change the way we approach engine design and development for the future“.
The priority is to get more power for the 4 cylinders in line of the M1, without having to distort the design of the engine. After Suzuki’s exit, Yamaha remains the only manufacturer to adopt this engine configuration which, according to Lin Jarvis, still has room for improvement. There was some progress in the Irta tests at Jerez de la Frontera and Misano, but something didn’t work as expected in Valencia.
Fabio Quartararo is waiting for clarifications, but they probably won’t be there before the next outing on the track in Sepang, at the beginning of February, when the 2023 MotoGP pre-season will continue. “The latest evolution of next year’s engine will arrive in Malaysia – clarified the British manager -. So we still have three or four months to continue developing and refining the engine“. All that remains is to wait.
The article Yamaha, big doubts about the engine: now it can’t be wrong comes from Motori News.
