Faced with everything that is being said and written at the moment about the penalty received by Yamaha for having used valves from two different manufacturers in his engines, Lin Jarvis had no choice but to reveal to the general public all the details of a type of affair which does not generally come out of meetings of the MSMA association of manufacturers.
This does not prejudge the fairness of the penalty imposed by the FIM, which is currently also under debate, but, at least, it makes things clear: Ano valve changes, no desire to cheat, but simply a non-compliance with the regulation which excludes the possibility of a part being supplied by several manufacturers.
The General Manager of Yamaha Motor Racing spoke similarly on the official website MotoGP.com and on the British television channel BT Sport, and it is this version that we have translated for you.
Lynn Jarvis : " I've been listening to a lot of commentary on BT because when I'm not in a session I'm listening to you, so I'm very aware of the discussions that are happening. »
« First of all, there is a big misunderstanding because you are talking about replacing the valves, which has never been the case. We asked to replace the valves when we had engine failures at the beginning of the year. Basically, from that moment the stories started but I think it is very important to understand the origin of the story and the mistake that took place to arrive at this sanction situation. »
« The reality is that we planned to do this season with valves of a certain specification from a certain supplier. In the middle of last year, when we ordered all the parts, we realized that this valve supplier was going to stop producing these valves in the future. From that moment on, Yamaha looked for another supplier of the same valves, with the same specifications, the same plans, the same specifications, and for everything to be the same. There was therefore no performance gain or performance advantage. This was done and, from there, we had the valves that already existed, plus the valves that were ordered, so that we could manage the 2020 season using valves from both manufacturers. »
« Yamaha considered all of these valves to be the same because the specifications, specifications, controls were all the same, and the only thing different was the manufacturers. But the regulation says you can't use two manufacturers because it says the parts must be absolutely identical in everything. This is the fundamental starting point of Yamaha's misunderstanding in Japan when they planned this season. It is important. »
« What actually happened was that at the start of the season the standard engine was equipped with old valves, which is not surprising because everyone tries to use old parts in order not to not waste new parts. So our engineers equipped the standard engine with what we might call A-valves, but they started with 8 engines equipped with B-valves. So the starting point is before the first race, because of what I would call a total error of judgment on what is written in the regulations. This was done before the start of the season. »
« Then we had an engine failure during the first race and we started to try to solve it. We found that not only were the Type B valves different from those of the standard engine, but they also had a technical defect. We had a weakness on these valves because the batch of valves had been produced with a different precision than what we had ordered. This is why we asked the MSMA to be able to change the valves at this time. We couldn't get clear evidence from the valve manufacturer of a defect in the manufacturing process, so we ultimately withdrew our application and had to try to resolve this another way. »
« But we acted very transparently from the beginning to solve our problem: we wanted to use the other valves which were identical. And it was from that moment that a red line appeared because we realized that these valves could potentially be considered different. And since then we have been tracking this issue. »
« Basically, we immediately stopped using these engines and the only time we used them after the first race was during free practice sessions and qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix, the fifth Grand Prix. We used them for two drivers, only during free practice sessions and qualifying, not during the race. And from there we understood that there was more pressure on us because there was an MSMA meeting in Styria, and we said “OK, until this problem is finally resolved, we don’t take any other risks.” »
« All the engines, with the exception of the eight engines built for the start of the season, and one which we had to change to Maverick because it had broken in the race, were all equipped with type B valves, which correspond to the type of valves which equip the standard engine. So we used the same valves during all the other races. »
« So following our error of judgment, we were sanctioned because of a technical protocol, because if the valves were judged identical from a performance point of view, and there was clearly no advantage, we should have realized that we should have requested permission at the start of the season to use valves from two manufacturers. »
« This is the border (which we have crossed) and when I hear people say “ah, they changed the valves”, it is completely false! We never changed the valves! We started the season with what I would call the good intention of using these valves during the first part of the year before using the others during the second part of the year. »
The penalty received by Yamaha
