As recently as the start of the 2019 season, everything looked rosy for Yamaha’s MotoGP effort.
It had a strong and successful factory line-up, a promising new partner for its satellite arm, and two hot young talents waiting in the wings.
Since then, the entire project seems to be slowly crumbling around it, which begs the question: what on earth went wrong?
Back in 2019, Yamaha was running Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales in a factory team launched for the season with much ado under brand new title branding from energy drinks giant Monster.
Both riders had been consistent podium finishers the previous year, taking third and fourth in the championship, and looked set to start the season in great form.
For its satellite squad, Yamaha had just secured the services of the brand new Petronas Sepang Racing Team, replacing long-time partner Tech3 with a big-money Asian sponsor.
Rossi protege Franco Morbidelli was Petronas’ headline star, but after a successful testing programme there was plenty of buzz about double junior world champion Fabio Quartararo on the other side of the box too – despite the Frenchman having dropped off most MotoGP teams’ radars as he toiled in Moto3 and Moto2.
And perhaps more important than anything else, the Yamaha M1 was widely regarded as the best bike on the MotoGP grid, especially for rookie riders.
Smooth and comfortable without sacrificing too much power to its V4-engined rivals, Yamaha had issues with rear grip in previous seasons but looked to be finally getting back to title winning form.
Two and a half seasons later, and the only saving grace left in the project is the incredible job that Quartararo, now promoted to the factory team, is doing. And he’s rider Yamaha effectively lucked into after Petronas grabbed him from the wilderness when no one else was interested.
The rest of the factory team is in meltdown, the bike is only just getting back to fitness after a technical disaster in 2020, and the satellite team is without a sponsor and can’t find riders.
Let’s not forget that it’s less than a year since we saw Yamaha docked a significant amount of team and constructors’ championship points for essentially illegally modifying its sealed engines, after a series of high-profile engine explosions that, among other things, cost Morbidelli his first MotoGP podium and arguably a chance at the title.
Penalised with the removal of 50 points in the constructors’ championship, the decision to open the engines to replace faulty valves cost Yamaha that title and brought a load of bad headlines its way.
While that was bad, the situation that it’s currently undergoing with Vinales can only be described as an unmitigated and unprecedented disaster.
It was bad to start with when tensions with the rider reached a new low following his last-place finish at the Sachsenring in June, but things took a whole new twist after the Styrian Grand Prix when the team accused him of deliberately attempting to blow up his bike’s engine during the race.
Vinales is currently suspended and no one expects him to ever sit on a Yamaha MotoGP machine again.
It means that Quartararo is likely to spend the remainder of the year teamed up with test rider Cal Crutchlow before Morbidelli – currently in a major fitness battle over a long-running injury – steps into Vinales’ place next season.
And over at what is currently the Petronas Yamaha SRT team, that high-profile title sponsor is leaving, it’s likely to be salvaged by a management buyout, it’ll be running B-spec machines next year and its Moto2 and Moto3 teams are set to fold for 2022.
In an era where every other manufacturer with a satellite team is now running at least four factory-spec bikes each, with two in the factory team and two in satellite squads (or three in Ducati’s case next year), it’s a huge blow for Yamaha in terms of data collection and development work to only have two of its latest bikes at each round.
It’s a very strange call, too, given that if it wanted to have four works bikes Yamaha could do what every other manufacturer is doing and pay for the newest bikes itself rather than just expecting the satellite team to find a sponsor to cough up the cash.
That’s always the way Yamaha has worked, but it’s now become an antiquated approach and it’s one it’ll pay the price for.
Yet the bike spec not the biggest problem the satellite team is facing.
With significantly reduced financial backing and less technical support, it’s become abundantly clear why it’s severely struggled in recent weeks to secure top level riders.
SRT aggressively targeted names like Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi (pictured) but is rumoured to have been offering only a third of the salary that factory-bound Morbidelli is on right now. Both names have now escaped the team.
Instead, it’s looking likely to use the services of its current Moto3 rider Darryn Binder (following some contractual shenanigans involving a deal already signed to ride for a Moto2 team that will no longer exist) and Iker Lecuona for its 2022 MotoGP line-up, with the Tech3 KTM refugee set to fall into a comfortable spot with what’s currently Petronas.
All in all, it’s made for a remarkable change in fortune for Yamaha.
It’s hard to put the finger of blame on any particular corner of its operation, but it’s clear that rider management, corporate strategy, some dubious technical decisions and just old fashioned bad luck have all played a role in sabotaging what was once a success.
And in fact, it really highlights the absolute importance of keeping hold of 23-year-old Quartararo for as long as possible.
In an era where every other team is doing all it can to build long term strategies, Yamaha has once again been left with no rising young stars in its feeder programme, no linked Moto2 team to develop talent through, and no top level satellite bikes to help develop the M1.
It means things are likely to get worse for Yamaha in the years ahead, unless changes are made sooner rather than later.
Fortunately, it looks like Quartararo should take the title for Yamaha this year – but the example set over and over again by Repsol Honda should leave Yamaha more than a little wary of the dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket.
