Yamaha begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel

It has been since 2017 that the first clouds have been gathering over Iwata. If until 2021, the Yamaha have managed to stay at the forefront and even win a world title thanks to fabio quartararo, the descent into hell began in 2022 and has reached its lowest point in the last two seasons. With only two bikes on the grid in 2024, the blue and black machines have rarely weighed on the races this year, even if the situation remains more positive than with the other representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun, Honda.

When it comes to taking stock, on the official website of the MotoGP, Massimo Meregalli was keen to salute his troops, who did not shy away from the scale of the task to return to the top. If the racing season was already the longest in history, it was accompanied by a huge number of test days, with Yamaha and Honda having the right to a much more extensive test course than their rivals, thanks to the concession system. And all this work seems to be starting to pay off.

“Of course it was the longest season in history, but I am very satisfied with the effort made by everyone throughout the year. We never gave up. After Áragón we started to see results after all that hard work. It is satisfying, because when you work hard and you don’t see any results, things are even more difficult to manage. But at the end of the season we started to see progress that remained at the end of the year. On the aerodynamics, the engineers worked very hard and the riders started to understand how it all works, especially when we had them running again with the old specification, they really understood the benefit of the evolutions.”

Aerodynamics is not the only point that Yamaha has worked on in 2024, since the entire engine architecture of the YZR-M1 begins its transformation, from an inline four-cylinder to a V4, acclaimed by the rest of the peloton. A revolution for the Japanese manufacturer, which could however not see the track in Grand Prix in 2025 but rather in 2026.

Meregalli also spoke about the work of his two riders, Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins. While the Frenchman has been more than holding the fort for the past four years, the Spaniard has had to deal with numerous injuries, and the Italian team director believes that he will be able to express his full potential in 2025, alongside three other riders, since the Pramac team (world champion of the riders with Jorge Martín) joins the Japanese clan, after a long relationship with Ducati.

“Fabio is one of the people who has worked the most, and he has also tried to adapt himself, changing his way of riding, which is not easy. When Álex arrived, he was not 100%, then he suffered another crash in Assen, where he fractured his wrist. He has never been, for me, in the conditions that allowed him to attack 100%. But he has always tried to do his best. In the last races, he has started to get closer and that is very important for us. We know what he is capable of, but being alone against the other brands that have a lot of bikes on the track is a disadvantage. When Álex is in good shape, it gives us at least two riders with whom we can gather information. When we have four riders next year, that will already give us a lot more information and we will benefit from it.”

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