CAN QUARTARARO HOLD OFF DUCATI POWER AND A REVIVED HONDA?
The Motogp season kicks off in Qatar this weekend and the reigning champion has a significant disadvantage against the chasing pack
GOLD AND GOOSE he sophomore slump is a phenomenon in music where an artist or band’s follow-up to their successful debut album fails to land the same impact. More commonly, this is known as ‘the difficult second album’. It is something that can also be applied to a reigning Motogp world champion. Winning one is hard enough, repeating that feat is an even more difficult proposition.
Fabio Quartararo’s historic 2021 title, when he became France’s first Motogp world champion and ended drought for Yamaha dating back to Jorge Lorenzo’s 2015 success, fulfilled a prophecy. In his pre-grand prix days in the Junior World Championship, Quartararo was touted as the next Marc Marquez.
When he was signed in 2018 to join the fledgling Petronas Sepang Racing Team on a year-old Yamaha after failing – for many reasons – to live up to expectation in Moto3 and Moto2, his new team management was convinced that the talent that had earned him so much hype still existed within. And in a rookie 2019 season in which Quartararo scored six poles and seven podiums, Marquez himself marked him out as a title challenger for 2020 and beyond. Yamaha believed he was its future, snaring him with a two-year deal to replace Valentino Rossi at the factory squad for 2021 – for all intents and purposes, the heir to the throne.
Five wins and five other podiums in a truly stunning 2021 campaign, which not only showcased Quartararo’s true talents but also his mental fortitude, ensured he became champion. And so, what was meant to be was.
Now Quartararo is the one with the target on his back, a position he says offers him no hindrance. “I have less pressure because I achieved my dreams and most riders don’t achieve this dream to be Motogp world champion,” he offered ahead of pre-season testing earlier this month.
From his woefully tough Moto3 days, Quartararo has continued to learn how to better build up the defences of his mind to cope. Until the penultimate round of 2021, whenever Quartararo failed to finish on the podium – usually as a result of circumstance, rather than a lack of speed – he would be
T
there at the following event.
Now he faces that difficult second album. And he will need to conjure all of his mental and riding might if he is to remain world champion come the Valencia finale in November.
Yamaha’s 2021 challenger righted the wrongs of its inconsistent 2020 package. But it lacked top speed and, with an onslaught of eight Ducatis – Motogp’s fastest bike – coming for 2022, Yamaha needed to arm itself better in the engine department. As pre-season testing confirmed, it failed in this quest.
“Honestly, what’s disappointing is that with so much time to evolve the engine, we have nothing,” a despondent Quartararo fumed – not for the first time – during testing. “What I don’t understand is this. On any track, on average you’re always 10km/h [6mph] slower. Whether the straight is 100m or 1km, it’s minimum 10 km/h, sometimes more. That’s why I’m not happy about it.”
While top speed is one element that makes a competitive bike, it’s not the defining factor. The Yamaha package remains as solid as it did in 2021, with Quartararo’s race pace among the best at the Indonesia test, where he was second outright at the new Mandalika track having made some improvements in qualifying trim after encountering some troubles.
But not having the horsepower to attack and defend from much faster bikes limits your opportunity for overtaking, something Quartararo is keenly aware of, noting bluntly: “What I can work
“WHAT I DON’T UNDERSTAND IS THIS. ON ANY TRACK, ON AVERAGE YOU’RE ALWAYS 10KM/H SLOWER”
on is to study each track as much as possible. Doing good qualifyings, not to make any mistakes. In fact, we don’t have the right to make mistakes. In Portimao, we qualified seventh, we were stuck behind [Ducatis and I crashed]. We don’t have the [luxury] to make mistakes, I think it’s sixth [maximum] in qualifying, otherwise we’ll say we’re in trouble.”
With Yamaha needing to homologate its engine ahead of the
Qatar GP on 6 March and unable to develop it for the rest of the season from that point (the same for all marques except Aprilia, due to its concession status), top speed will remain an issue in 2022. That’s trial one for Quartararo. The next is the strength of the competition in Motogp 2022. Eleven Motogp winners line up on the grid and five more have scored podiums at the elite level.
And with the development ban of 2021 due to COVID-19 lifted, Yamaha’s rivals have taken significant steps forward.
The most radically evolved bike of 2022 is the Honda. After several difficult years of badly behaved RC213VS, the absence of star asset Marquez in 2020 due to injury, and a 2021 campaign in which he won three times while still in recovery but the rest of its riders faltered, Honda had little choice but to rethink its approach. The new Honda is primarily aimed at fixing the rear traction problems of its predecessors. This endeavour came with its own risks – mainly to Marquez. He’s famed for his front-end feeling on the Honda, but the more rear-biased 2022 bike has forced him to somewhat adapt his style. At first, at the Sepang test, he admitted he had to “sacrifice” his key strength of corner-entry.
But in Indonesia he started to “feel something special” again.
He has tried to downplay his chances coming into this weekend’s Qatar season-opener, stating that “I still don’t have that special feeling” on the final day of the Mandalika test. Yet, his race pace was among the best, and more crucially he noted: “When I try different set-ups, the lap time was still coming. I tried different aerodynamics and the lap time was coming. I tried different tyres, medium, soft and the lap time was coming. So, when you have this feeling it’s because the potential is there.”
There is an ominous undertone to Marquez’s praise of the new Honda, while HRC’S attack could be two-pronged since the improvements have brought Pol Espargaro back into play – the seven-time Motogp podium finisher was beaming at the end of testing, after topping the last day of the Mandalika running.
Also seemingly back in the game is Suzuki. Joan Mir’s defence of his 2020 title was hindered by a bike that had developed very little, and meant he could do no better than third in the standings. Discontent also grew within the Suzuki ranks after the team’s decision not to replace its talismanic leader Davide Brivio – who departed for Alpine in Formula 1 – on the eve of the 2021 campaign proved to be a misstep.
The GSX-RR was not a bad bike by any means in 2021, it was just lacking compared to the likes of Yamaha and Ducati. But it now has various tweaks and a new engine, which Alex Rins says offers
more power without altering the bike’s fundamental handling characteristics. That is a very hard thing to achieve, and a Suzuki with more usable power will be a dangerous weapon – particularly in the hands of Mir, who rode better than ever in 2021 despite an absence of victories.
Mir’s pre-season was hindered by absent mechanics due to COVID-19 on day two of the Indonesia test, and him missing the final day due to food poisoning. But he believes he’s ready for the start of the season despite the missed track time. Suzuki will also have a new team manager in the form of ex-honda boss Livio Suppo at the helm, which should stop a repeat of 2021.
KTM has also taken cautiously optimistic steps in the right direction after a troubled 2021, while Aprilia seems to be edging ever closer to the front with its latest RS-GP.
What remains unclear at this stage is where Ducati sits in the order. It’s not so much a case of whether the GP22 is competitive or not: it’s more, how good is the new Ducati? That question went unanswered during testing. Last year’s runner-up Francesco Bagnaia denied claims that he is the favourite for the 2022 title, after his breakout 2021 campaign. But at the end of testing he felt that
Ducati “had done an incredible job” in Malaysia and Indonesia.
There were no standout lap times for either factory Ducati team riders. The fastest 2022-spec Ducati in Indonesia was VR46 rider Luca Marini’s in third overall, while Bagnaia was sixth and around four tenths off the pace. Across the final day of the Mandalika test, Ducati was fifth in the rankings when it came to average lap pace over long runs – Jack Miller the best of them. The main complaint about the Ducati is that its new engine is delivering power quite aggressively. But the weapon Ducati has at its disposal is its sheer force in numbers this year. Eight riders will pilot Desmosedicis in 2022, five on current-spec bikes and three on 2021 variants.
“I think this is also one of the advantages of the Ducati policy,
“WITH EIGHT BIKES WE CAN COLLECT VERY, VERY MUCH INFORMATION THAT IS USEFUL FOR ALL OF US”
where we have so many bikes,” sporting director Paolo Ciabatti said during testing. “OK, [with] eight bikes on the grid for sure we can collect very, very much information that is useful for all of us and for our engineers because they can really compare the data from eight fast riders.”
If Ducati does have any problems, chances are it won’t take it long to find a fix. On top of that, it has an immensely competent roster headed by four-time race winner Bagnaia, with triple race victor Miller’s capabilities well-documented (even if he does need more consistency), while Pramac and Gresini sophomores Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini (the Italian on a 2021 bike and the pacesetter in the Sepang test) are reckoned to be dark horses for 2022.
Considering that Bagnaia – followed by Marquez – is the most likely to take the fight to Quartararo, the roster of tailgunners that the Italian can call on should concern Yamaha. Franco Morbidelli still needs time to adjust from the 2019-spec M1 to the new model as a factory rider, while RNF Racing’s Andrea Dovizioso – returning for a full campaign after spending much of 2021 sidelined – admits he is “still too far away” from being competitive on the Yamaha.
There is no doubting Quartararo’s prowess as a title campaigner, and he will only be stronger again in 2022. But the wolves have encircled him and his options to fight them off are limited thanks to Yamaha’s apparent lack of engine development. And as a result, the 2022 Motogp season could well come to define Quartararo’s reign as world champion.