While making bids for rival manufacturers’ MotoGP riders has always been a part of the games played by teams, the contractual wheeling and dealing took on a fresh twist at last weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix.
The Race’s sources suggested that Honda is in the process of attempting to lure its former rider Cal Crutchlow back from Yamaha to join Stefan Bradl in a test rider role.
While some dismissed it as false, it appears there might be more to the rumour than just speculation. Despite Honda’s reaction of confirming that Bradl will remain with it for the foreseeable future (a deal signed back in July), it seems like there is in fact HRC interest in Crutchlow’s services.
That’s not surprising, given the role played by Crutchlow during his six seasons with the brand.
Sharing a late-braking and front tyre intensive riding style with Honda’s six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, his similarities to Marquez and the differences to other Honda riders like Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo meant Crutchlow quickly assumed an important role in Honda’s development.
And the role Crutchlow played could be what’s lacking at HRC right now, following frankly disappointing 2020 and 2021 seasons.
It showed its reliance on Marquez by failing to achieve almost anything last year after the extensive arm injuries he suffered at Jerez in July, and a slow realisation seems to be now dawning on Honda that it might need to build a more rider-friendly bike rather than simply replying on hiring supremely talented racers who can ride around problems.
And given Yamaha’s somewhat storied history with test riders, the belief that Crutchlow could at least be tempted by the switch isn’t too far-fetched.
He’s the third European-based test rider to join Yamaha in as many years – and yet, just like his predecessors, his talents have been largely squandered and his abilities allowed to rust in the face of Yamaha’s testing programme.
The first of the trio to pass through the ranks was former Yamaha racer Jonas Folger, a podium finisher for Tech3 who joined the factory in 2019 after his semi-retirement from racing following issues with both his physical and mental health during the 2017 season.
Testing only on a limited basis as Yamaha continued to run its R&D programme out of Japan, Folger lasted only a year before announcing his departure.
That led to the high-profile signing of five-time world champion Lorenzo, brought back onboard at the start of 2020 on a seven-figure salary that matched many of the grid’s factory racers.
However, he too was barely given a chance to ride for the team. After completing two days of shakedown testing at Sepang at the start of the year, he then sat at home for much of the rest of the year as Yamaha suspended all European testing.
Returning to track in October for a two-day outing at Portimao ahead of MotoGP’s inaugural race there, Lorenzo was reportedly distinctly off pace – something attributed to a lack of bike fitness.
But still recovering from his 2019 injury, not riding much over the preceding months and told by Yamaha that he wouldn’t test again in 2020 until right before the Portuguese outing, Lorenzo’s performance was perhaps no surprise – but it was enough to leave a bad taste in his mouth and meant he too split with the team at the end of that year.
That opened the door in turn for Crutchlow to step in after his retirement from full-time racing with LCR Honda – only for history to repeat itself as Yamaha once again failed to use its new signing.
After riding for six days at the start of the season alongside regular MotoGP testing, Crutchlow has hardly tested since then.
Though he ventured out at Jerez in April, he failed to join any of the official mid-season tests including this week’s two days at Misano, although he will head to Aragon next week to test in private for the first time since Jerez.
Sure, he’s been thrown into the deep end as a racer for four rounds of the championship, replacing first Franco Morbidelli at Petronas and then Maverick Vinales on the factory bike. But even that was badly managed, with not Crutchlow but World Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff the first man to replace Morbidelli.
While the coronavirus pandemic can take the blame for at least some of Yamaha’s hesitancy to use Crutchlow, it’s worth noting that MotoGP’s other Japanese brands have handled the situation differently.
Both Bradl at Honda and Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli have been testing extensively throughout 2021, with both on track this week at Misano.
Of course, it’s easy to dismiss the need for extensive testing right now given that Yamaha’s lead rider Fabio Quartararo is going into the final four rounds of the championship with a healthy title lead.
But given the slump shown by other Yamahas in 2021, it’s very possible that the team’s falling into the Honda trap of over relying on the skills of one particular rider.
To reverse that trend, the solution is simple: Yamaha needs to create a European testing team centred around an experienced crew chief the way that Suzuki has rather masterfully done with Doctor Tom O’Kane, Aleix Espargaro’s former technical guru.
And if Quartararo truly is working miracles on this bike, like it seems the young Frenchman is doing, then a proper test approach is a decision that Yamaha needs to stop threatening to make and actually implement sooner rather than later – because as Suzuki has learned the hard way in 2021, time stands still for no team in MotoGP.
