At the start of the last Grand Prix of the 2020 MotoGP season, representatives of the six manufacturers involved in the premier category spoke to the press gathered virtually in Portimão.
In turn, everyone was able to take stock of their season before answering questions from journalists.
After Davide Brivio for Suzuki et Paolo Ciabatti for Ducati, Lynn Jarvis found himself, as expected, under the crossfire of questions concerning the very contrasting season of the Yamaha. Fortunately, the man is a communications professional and provides some interesting answers…
Lynn Jarvis (Director of Yamaha Motor Racing and Principal of Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team): “ It is difficult to have a single judgment (on the 2020 season). I think it's been a very heavy year for everyone, for everyone here, all the manufacturers, for the drivers and the teams, because anyway, doing this season with the Covid situation has was generally very rough. As Paolo (Ciabatti) said previously, at the end of this weekend we will have done 14 races in really very difficult circumstances. So I would say that for every person on our team, it has been heavy. We have had our ups and downs this year. Obviously, we started at the top at the beginning of the year. At the start of the year, no, since Qatar was canceled, but in Jerez we were first and second in the first two races. But while we were winning the races in Jerez, we immediately discovered our Achilles heel. Obviously our Achilles heel was the valve problem we suffered from the first run. From FP1, Maverick experienced the first problem then Valentino stopped during the race and Franco Morbidelli stopped during the second race. So this problem, this Achilles heel, continued throughout the year and it sometimes obviously compromised the chances of better performance for some of our drivers, because we had to modify the engines, degrade the engines, then we put away a lot of engines. We put away eight engines during the season, so we raced in a very strange, stressful and difficult situation, above all for a driver. And ultimately it culminated at the end of the year, when we had this no-penalty decision in Valencia which affected the constructors' and teams' championships but fortunately not the drivers' championship. »
« But it's been a tough year dealing with Covid and dealing with these issues: it's been like carrying a very heavy bag of stones on your back! That being said, on the positive side, I would say we've also been able to see a lot of race wins, so our bike has definitely been a good bike this year, capable of winning in a lot of different circumstances. It has also been unusual in the sense that the Petronas team has won six races while the factory team has only one so far, since this weekend is not over. Obviously, the bike has potential and is competitive since it was able to win the races, but we did not achieve our goal which was to win the world championship. So hats off to Suzuki because they were very consistent and had a good season together. Joan Mir showed maturity and they won the championship, so I would say it was a missed opportunity on our side. »
Do you think that the lack of consistency of the Yamahas is only due to your technical problems and Covid? Because some of your riders are disappointed that the bike works very well one week and not the next…
« Unfortunately, this is a bit of the problem we have had to face over the last three years. We saw that in some years it had been more extreme than this year. We are still struggling with grip, with traction, and also with braking. We have two specs of bikes, three riders with the same specs, what we'll call the 2020 bike, as well as Franco Morbidelli with a 2020 Spec A bike that has a different base. What we saw is that during the second part of the year Franky got three victories and so he is the man in form at the moment while some of the others have struggled. »
« The bike was therefore not able to provide regular performance on all circuits, due to its design. This is not directly related to the valve problem, it's another design issue. »
In recent years, you have signed your drivers very early, including this season with Fabio and Maverick. This implies that Franco Morbidelli will not be an official driver next year. Could this lead you to reconsider your strategy in this area?
« To answer your question regarding the timing of decisions for future drivers, I would say that we are very happy with our choice. We believe in the drivers we have chosen for 2021 and 2022, and they have a two-year contract. In this world the competition is on the track and off the track, and if you look here you see there are six manufacturers, and each of these six manufacturers the drivers are very very important if you want to achieve your goal and objective which is to win the world championship. So we are also competing off the track and everyone wants not to be beaten and see their choice of drivers taken by another manufacturer. Last year we made an early operation with Fabio and Maverick, at a time when Valentino had not decided on his own future. So it was very special circumstances and I can only say that I don't think it would have changed our... You know, Franky's last results this season are very, very good and very, very solid, and put Franky in a strong position. But we have in mind that Franky will also ride a Yamaha next year and will ride a Yamaha in 2022 if we confirm the new contract with the SIC team for a further extension. So it's always difficult and in a sense it's a gamble, but at some point you have to make your choice with all the information and all the expectations that you have. You make your choice and you go with it. So no, I'm happy with this choice. »
What role will Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo and Valentino Rossi play in the development of the bike, and have you discussed it with them?
« Regarding the Valentino change, of course, this weekend marks a significant moment for us and for Valentino, as he is in his 15th season with the Yamaha factory team. It's truly extraordinary! Of course, he did this in two periods, the first time he did seven years before taking a two-year break then coming back for eight years. So there is no doubt that moving next door will be a change and it will be different, but on the other hand it will not be different because Valentino will have full factory support next year . He will ride a factory motorcycle with the same specifications as the factory riders. It is true that some of the developments will be carried out more by the factory team, but Valentino is a very important part of our data collection. Davide (Brivio) just said, having more riders on the track is important, and obviously our engineers will look at the data from Fabio, Maverick and Valentino to develop and progress the factory bike. But you know, we're also getting some interesting information from having Franky there, so I think it won't be a huge change, that anyway we won't have a huge deficit, and that won't change not much the way we develop the bike. »
Why might we be led to think that last year's bike performs better than this year's?
« Concerning the performance of the motorcycles and the results obtained, you say that the old motorcycle performs better than the new motorcycle, if I understood the question correctly. This isn't really always the case. In the end, we won seven races this year, and four of those wins were achieved with the new 2020 factory specs, and Franco is using the 2020 Spec A which is different. So statistically, more wins were achieved with factory specs. It depends on the circuits, it depends on the circumstances, and sometimes, in wanting to move forward and hoping for a gain, you also lose something along the way. And it is very difficult to always constantly progress. And with factory spec you have to progress: you can't stay with what you have and expect to be competitive in the future. »
« So maybe on those occasions I think Franky performed exceptionally well, and we also saw that last year in Fabio's case: he didn't win a race last season but he was really very strong with his package. And sometimes working with the package you have is better than constantly developing and looking for new things. So it's always a question of balancing the scales. »
What influence could the changes there have been in the engine department in Japan and the valve problems encountered this year have on the future development of your 2022 engine?
« Regarding the question about the engine department, we changed the organization of our engine department at the very beginning of the year, so I don't really expect a major change in the short term. But I think the mistake we made this year was made before the start of this year: it was made in the middle of last year. Coming back to the topic of valves, I don't want to give away too many details, but we had this problem with the valve supplier in July when they couldn't continue production of the valves we wanted to use. At this point, Yamaha made its decision to have two valve suppliers, and this was a misunderstanding of the regulations. Then there was the factor that maybe we missed the protocol at the start of the season... So I think in terms of the engine department itself, speaking frankly and aside from the weakness of some of the valves that we have known, our engine was very reliable for the rest of the season. Some of our engines now have more than 3000 km, which is truly extraordinary! And they had to do that because we had to put away a whole batch of engines. So I think our main consideration to progress in the future is that we will have to pay much more attention to the details in a strict way on planning the season, reconfirming the quality of the components, and reconfirming the regulations: so much more reconfirmations will be necessary. »
« For the 2021 season, we are quite confident about our engines because of the reliability we have seen using the correct valves for most of the season. As you know, the regulations imply that we will continue to use these engines next year. We are still short of power so we can work to get more power but we will have to wait until 2022, when we can re-develop or use the development on the new engine. I hope to have answered your question. »
Do you think that the arrival of Cal Crutchlow can solve the recurring problem of the Yamahas represented by their irregularity and their grip problems?
« Regarding your question about the regularity of motorcycles, or their irregularity, yes, it is something that we have experienced over the last three years. Sometimes we can perform exceptionally well, and sometimes we really struggle, and we really struggle to find solutions, and that definitely happened again this year. I think this year we were also handicapped because we didn't do a single test apart from the official tests with the contracted factory riders, while we had a bike with new specifications, a new engine and a new chassis. We started the year by signing Jorge Lorenzo and we had planned a full test program for this year, using the Japanese test team with some European personnel and Jorge. In reality, we only drove two days at Sepang and then the test before Portimao. So all the activities we had planned this year unfortunately had to be canceled, and I think that definitely affected us negatively because we weren't able to work on the problem while I still think Jorge would have been a great d try to do this job.
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« As for the other part of your question, about next year, the fact that we will have Cal with us is a sign of our intent. We are fully confident that we have made a very, very good choice with Cal. I think Cal is a real worker, he is really eager to start this project. We won't make the same mistake twice and we will definitely carry out a more intensive testing program next year. We got a lot of information back this year, so our engineers are going to change the chassis next year and work to improve that, plus the testing feedback from Cal, plus our own pre-season testing, we're rather confident that we will be able to resolve this problem next year.
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Can you explain to us why you preferred to choose Cal Crutchlow instead of continuing with Jorge Lorenzo?
« What we saw was that when we did the first test of the season at Sepang, it had already been four months since Jorge Lorenzo had ridden a motorcycle, when he did the burn-in test at Sepang . In fact, we didn't test anything at all but Jorge found his speed again. Then, as I said, we did not do the slightest test, we could not do the slightest test because of the health situation up to Portimao. And again, Jorge Lorenzo did not spend the slightest time on a motorcycle during these many months. I think our decision was generally based on the fact that Cal is coming off a full Grand Prix season, whereas if we had taken Jorge, he would have been a full year, almost a year and a half, away from a season of Grand Prix competitions. Cal is race-ready, ready to go. He was available and showed a passion for doing this work, so we felt he was the right choice for us at this time. »
To be continued with Mike Leitner for KTM…
here Paolo Ciabatti for Ducati
Photo credit: MotoGP.com
