Yamaha and Honda riders have had plenty to complain about during the 2024 MotoGP season, but one of the most common comments has been about issues getting the rear tyre up to temperature.
That was a particular problem at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, where it affected all six of them to some degree and severely hindered their performance in the opening laps of the race.
Fabio Quartararo made it up to ninth on the best Yamaha, with LCR’s Johann Zarco the top Honda in 12th, but the bikes’ race pace once the tyres were up to temperature was stronger than the results suggest.
Quartararo was perhaps the most vocal on the issue.
“I had good pace in the second half of the race,” the 2021 world champion explained, “but in the first part I nearly high-sided five or six times.
“There was one zone of the tyre that was never ready, and I was always losing the rear quite aggressively.
“We have to improve this area, because it’s Mandalika and here where we really struggled to warm the tyre from the beginning. We have to understand why.”
While Quartararo feels Yamaha hasn’t figured it out yet, next door in the Repsol Honda garage Luca Marini has a theory.
“For sure it’s a matter of weight distribution in the bike,” Marini said when asked about the problem by The Race after finishing 14th.
“We have so much weight in the front, because in the past the bikes were like this, especially with Bridgestone tyres.
“Always winning in this way, with this traditional way to build a bike for the Japanese.
“For the rider, it’s fantastic to have this kind of feeling with the front tyre, but the problem is that the rear - which is the best part of the Michelin tyres - we cannot use all of the potential of it.
“The target for next year will be for sure to try and change the weight distribution a little and to load the rear tyre more, like the other bikes do.”
That theory isn’t exactly a new one - Honda and Yamaha having long been regarded as having somewhat missed the boat in terms of MotoGP’s aerodynamics revolution and are only now working on bikes whose design concepts better reflect the direction in which their rivals have travelled.
While Marini’s theory might explain a relative weakness of Honda right now, he believes it also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of one of its rivals as well.
“I think we have to look at KTM especially,” he added, “because they are the masters of this.
“Their tyre is ready in lap one. Maybe sometimes, they push too much on the rear tyre and this is why every time Jack [Miller] and Augusto [Fernandez] go to the back, sometimes also Brad [Binder].
“Maybe they are on the opposite side, but we have to work and try to analyse them and to try and improve this situation.
“In my opinion if we are able to solve it, we can fight for P7 or P8 - but we have to find a solution to this problem.”
The good news for all on Hondas is that Marini believes the team is edging closer to understanding the issue, with a marked improvement over this season thanks to changes to the bike’s balance and new aerodynamic upgrades.
“We already solved many problems,” he stressed, “and now the conditions are much better than last year or at the beginning of the season.
“Together, we were able to work deeply on this and try many things, and now we have a better condition.
“But still when the compound is so hard, it’s difficult for us.”
