MotoGP shake-up at Yamaha
Boss says changes are needed in Japan
Yamaha MotoGP boss Lin Jarvis has hinted at major changes at the factory next season as they continue to struggle with the current M1. Now in Yamaha’s longest losing streak since 1972 and with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales managing no better than eighth and tenth in Sunday’s race, Jarvis says it’s time for a shake-up in Japan.
With the Yamahas struggling with both engine braking on corner entry, rear grip under acceleration and completely unable to challenge for wins as a result, the veteran team boss told MCN after Sunday’s race that changes have to be made.
“I don’t want to go as far as to say that people’s positions should be reviewed, but the only way to get out of a problem scenario is to investigate deeply to see what went wrong, make sure you stop doing what is wrong, and fire yourself off in a new direction. There is no doubt Yamaha know how to build bikes and win races but something we’re doing at the moment doesn’t work and it’s gone on too long.
“We don’t develop the bikes at our team base in Italy – the group responsible for the bike is in Japan. We do engine maintenance and have some electronics engineers but the leadership of the design and concept is in Yamaha’s headquarters in Japan.”
“It’s difficult to manage at the moment, because our riders are here to try and win and they’re suffering with motivation. They both have the speed and the capacity to win and we’re here to challenge for the title so we need to get out of this slump. Nobody wants to be here and I just hope that we can find the engineering solutions to be back on the same level as our main opposition.” But while that may sound simple, in reality it’s incredibly difficult and something Rossi isn’t overly optimistic about. Having already tried the first 2019 engine in a private test he admitted it was far from perfect. “It was only a small modification and it felt very similar to my current engine. I hope they continue to work, because they have to make it better for us.”
Even more brutally though, Rossi also admitted that Yamaha had been left behind not just this year but for the last three as engineers haven’t improved the M1 in three seasons.
“I was a little faster this year than I was last, but only because I was injured last year. Marquez and Dovizioso were 10 seconds faster than last year because they made a big step since then. The last big step for Yamaha was in a private test at Aragon in 2015. We did the test before the Assen race in June and then I went to Assen and won! I hope that some top guys in Yamaha see how long we’ve went without a win now and ask why!”