Viñales tops test
New M1 could be the giant leap Yamaha needs
There may finally be light at the end of the tunnel for the Yamaha MotoGP duo of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales, after the end of season test at Valencia last week finally brought the pair some of the improvements they’ve been hunting for two years. Working with not one but two new specs of engine at Valencia, both riders were upbeat.
Struggling to find rear grip and acceleration from the M1 for the best past of two seasons, ever since Michelin changed the construction of their rear tyres at Mugello in 2017, Yamaha have been working to address the problem with electronics and chassis mods. But, with the 2018-spec engine sealed at the start of the year a step in the wrong direction as engineers also chased top end power, Yamaha lost the best part of two years and two shots at the title.
Ahead of the test Viñales was already saying that he believed Yamaha had solved the problems with the M1’s chassis and he was confident that if Yamaha could supply a new engine that would deliver more grip, then the bike could return to winning ways almost immediately. It’s believed the engine change has been achieved with a heavier crank which stops it spinning up as rapidly as before. The results are certainly promising with Viñales topping the table on both days, although he remains unsure which of Yamaha’s two engine specs he prefers. He said: “I only focused on the engine and never tested the set-up at all, and I’m happy that we were able to find some tenths just with the engine alone because we could have improved a lot more if we’d played with set-up. It means that when the chassis isn’t working as well, we can still make up some time from the engine alone. “There’s still a lot of work to do on the top end power because it’s very aggressive and I’m losing a lot of traction and time there. When we get to Jerez for the next test it’ll be very important to keep working on the two engines and to choose the right one. There’s a very small difference in them but that could make a lot over one lap.” However, while Viñales might once again be feeling optimistic about the future (a trap that the Spaniard has fallen into before), veteran team-mate Rossi was altogether more circumspect about the improvements after finishing the test in ninth position. Rossi said: “We’ll continue with the new material at another test in Jerez next week and see how it works at another track. “We’ve improved but it looks like the others have improved more, and we’re OK with a new tyre but still suffering with some laps on it and our pace isn’t very good.”
‘We’ve improved but others have improved more’ ‘We’ve found some tenths with the engine alone’