In 2024, Yamaha was handicapped by an Alex Rins who was “never at 100%”

Yamaha has had another complicated season in 2024, even though the year ended better than it started. Things are obviously never easy, when a factory with only two riders tries to fight against those with four, or even eight, in the case of Ducati.

Before the summer, Yamaha worked hard on this point to approach 2025 with better assets. This is how Pramac Racing signed with Iwata during the Assen Grand Prix. The benefits of this collaboration have not yet been observed, however. For the time being, the Yamaha men are therefore continuing their efforts, to get closer to the others with less data, as assured by the brand's sporting director.

“It was the longest season of all, but I am pleased with the effort everyone put in, Massimo Meregalli confides on MotoGP.com. We never gave up. After Aragon, we started to see better results. The sign that everything we had done up until then was working. Because if you work hard, but you don't see any results, it's harder to take. 

As I said, from Aragon we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, He continues. And we keep this pace because the aerodynamicists work a lot and well. The pilots also started to understand how the aero works, when we went back. Let's say that when we went back to old specifications, they understood the benefits of the new one.

©Yamaha MotoGP

Quartararo alone on board

Especially since on the rider side, Yamaha was unable to count on Alex Rins at 100% of his abilities. His French teammate therefore had to pull the team along for most of the season. Efforts that did not fail to impress at Yamaha.

"Fabio is one of the guys who put a lot of his own into it, adds the Italian again. He tries to adapt and change his riding to ride the bike. It's not easy. Alex Rins, he didn't get to 100%, he had ups and downs, then another accident in Assen. He broke his wrist. For me, he was never in the conditions where he could push and give 100%. Even overdriving."

Despite everything, the Spaniard's understanding of the bike improved at the end of the season, as illustrated by the few top-10s, always rare, that he scored in the second half of the season.

“He is starting to get closer. For us it is very important. First of all, we know what he is capable of. But being alone and fighting with all the other manufacturers, who have more bikes, it is a big disadvantage. So when Alex is in good shape, we have at least two riders to evaluate the data.” 

Now, the debuts of Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller with Pramac Yamaha are long overdue. "For me it will be a big step when we have four drivers. It will give us important benefits."

The beginnings of this collaboration could result in big news. Rumor has it that Yamaha is preparing to test its V4 on track, during the Shakedown organized in Sepang.

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