The news has now been made official that MotoGP promoter Dorna is considering altering the series’ concession rules to benefit the struggling Honda and Yamaha factories, with series sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta confirming the news in an interview with Radio Catalunya following this weekend’s Dutch TT.
However, even the mere suggestion has proven to be a divisive topic, with many fans not in favour of amending the championship’s rules to benefit the manufacturers – something likely to be backed up by Honda and Yamaha’s rival teams when it comes to voting on any possible amendment, especially important considering that each of the series’ three European teams hold a veto.
So while it might look like a plan that’s perhaps unlikely to come to fruition anyway, at least in its current guise, Ezpeleta’s words nonetheless add enough weight to the theory that it’s worth exploring the potential pros and cons of the idea.
FOR: It would help them become more competitive
The most obvious argument in favour of any rule change is, of course, that it would presumably immediately help Honda and Yamaha get back to the front in MotoGP, allowing them to use the extra testing and engine modifications and allowances to help regain some of the lost ground of recent seasons.
“Concessions can help you quite a lot,” Aleix Espargaro said at Assen. “A test team is OK, a satellite team is good, but if the factory riders can test things, if you can have more updates during the season, I think the concessions are a good idea.”
Considering engine specs are frozen for the year and aero updates are limited by regulations, opening those two up would certainly be appreciated by the Japanese marques – as those are the two departments where they are most obviously lacking.
That’s something that can only be good for the sport, too. There’s no argument that an uncompetitive Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo in particular isn’t something that anyone wants to see, but with both locked into contracts for 2024, it’s one solution that would allow them something of a way back to the front.
AGAINST: It’s not very sporting
Of course, the flip side of amending the rules to suit one particular team is, of course, that by doing so you’re going against the fundamental nature of the series’ sporting code. Sure, motorcycle racing is primarily about one rider’s talent versus another – but that fails to take into consideration that at least some of it also comes down to the bike that they’re on.
And while Honda and Yamaha might be struggling right now, it’s not really because they’ve built bad bikes – but has a lot more to do with the steps forward that their rivals in general and Ducati in particular have made in recent years.
Should a factory be effectively penalised for building an excellent bike, supplying it to anyone who wants to buy one, and then sharing all the data collected between their teams? That’s essentially one way of reading the conundrum that Ducati is facing right now – and in that context, it’s not hard to understand why it could be in favour of vetoing any amendment.
FOR: It makes up for COVID hitting harder
Of course, looking at the situation from inside the MotoGP bubble, it’s easy to say that some factories have worked harder and smarter than others to gain their advantage – but it’s also worth considering the bigger picture that may have helped to shape the situation.
During the 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no question that life was easier for the series’ three European manufacturers. Able to largely maintain normal life, at least after the toughest initial wave of the illness, it’s fair to say that their racing programmes didn’t suffer a significant impact beyond the rearranged calendars and more strict working conditions.
However, with Japan shut down almost completely for months, Honda and Yamaha’s engineers didn’t just find themselves without an office to work in – many of them also ended up trapped in Europe and isolated from their R&D teams completely.
Unable to freely travel back and forth thanks to Japan’s closed borders, COVID hit them hard – and there’s an argument that granting them concession status now, presumably only for the short term, would help reset the natural balance.
AGAINST: It won’t solve anything unless they address the real issues
Regardless of whatever plans that Dorna might have in mind to try and help Honda and Yamaha regain their former status, they will have little impact unless the teams radically change how they operate – and start building MotoGP machines designed to comply with the rule book as it is now rather than as it was five years ago.
The series has morphed considerably in the past half a decade with the explosion of aerodynamics in particular, altering not just the shape of the bike but the whole design of them. Machines have become longer and lower as winglets and ground effect fairings have become incorporated into their design from day one by the European factories – while their Japanese rivals continue to build bikes that look the way they always did.
With that arguably the real reason why they’re trailing, giving Honda and Yamaha more time to test isn’t going to change anything unless the two factories start playing by the current rulebook rather than the 2016 version and get with the times.
FOR: Other factories have had the same chance
Perhaps the argument most likely to help swing over the series’ three European factories is the one that’s got the potential to give them the worst headlines should they use their veto: the fact that all three of them have, in the past, benefitted from being concession-status teams.
Ducati was, in fact, the first ever concession team in MotoGP back when these were first introduced in 2015, albeit losing that status halfway through the season after an impressive start.
KTM joined in 2016 with concessions automatically awarded to it as a new entry, and only gave them up in 2020 – and only Aleix Espargaro’s podium at Jerez last year saw Aprilia finally become the final team to shed concession status.
Honda and Yamaha wouldn’t be the first team to earn the status after being previously ineligible, either, with Suzuki regaining it in 2018 – although, their rivals would argue, without the rules having to be modified to make it happen.
AGAINST: Their bikes aren’t that bad
All talk of granting both Honda and Yamaha concessions overlooks one key factor, though: the fact that despite the woes that both factories might be facing right now, neither of them actually have a horrendously slow bike, even if the ultra-close nature of MotoGP might be exaggerating the picture.
At Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo fought for a championship against Pecco Bagnaia until the very final round of 2022, and has already been on the podium this year twice – once in the full-distance Circuit of the Americas race, and once in the Assen sprint.
And while the current Honda RC213V might have gained a reputation in recent months for achieving nothing more than injuring its riders, it would be remiss to forget that the bike is also a race winner this season, in the hands of a satellite rider no less, thanks to Alex Rins’ exceptional performance in the above-mentioned COTA race.
