How Yamaha's engine debacle may cost it the 2020 MotoGP title

Oxford Languages defines a disaster as "an event or a fact that has unfortunate consequences". That moment for Yamaha occurred back in July, when the MotoGP manufacturer used illegal engines for its four riders fitted with different valves to the ones homologated pre-season.

The Spanish Grand Prix weekend was one plagued by engine issues for Yamaha. Valentino Rossi was forced out of the season-opener when his motor expired, while Maverick Vinales lost engine two of his allotted five for the campaign in practice. Still, Fabio Quartararo won on the Petronas SRT M1 and Vinales trailed him home in second, making it appear as if all was rosy in the garden.

And, despite an issue for Franco Morbidelli in the Andalusian GP, an all-Yamaha podium headed again by Quartararo gave little cause for concern.

That was until a few weeks later, when Autosport first reported Yamaha had sent an engine from Rossi and Vinales' allocation back to its Japanese base for inspection over the technical troubles it had encountered. Faulty valves from a secondary supplier to those used in some of its other engines were to blame, and Yamaha duly kicked 500rpm off all four of its riders' engines to avoid any further issues.

Yamaha requested to the MSMA - MotoGP's manufacturers' association - to unseal its engines to change the offending valves on safety grounds. It wasn't an unreasonable request - Aprilia had been granted such dispensation to resolve an issue in its engines at Jerez.

But Yamaha soon withdrew the request, claiming it had pinpointed the issue and there was nothing more to see here. As it turned out, the MSMA wanted documentation from the valve supplier explicitly confirming the fault. Yamaha claims it couldn't get the necessary documentation from the supplier.

All manufacturers had their engines frozen upon homologation pre-season (normally only the non-concession teams have development frozen, but COVID-19 and the resulting cost-saving measures necessitated a change to the rules for 2020), and so - unless granted MSMA approval - could not open them up again and change anything.

Yamaha didn't get the memo, allegedly, claiming "internal oversight" on its part in a statement released on Friday. It had different valves fitted to its Spanish GP engines to the ones in its homologated sample engine the valves due to a supply problem with the original parts. Yamaha insists there was no "malintent" involved in what it did as the valves it swapped out weren't actually of a different design - though there is naturally some doubt about this.

Yamaha was penalised 50 points in the constructors' championship - double what Quartararo earned for his Spanish GP victory - and 20 in the teams' standings, while SRT lost 37 from its haul for Quartararo and Morbidelli's first and fifth in the Spanish GP (as well as Morbidelli's 15th in the Styrian GP, because he practiced with one of the offending engines). Crucially, however, the riders' points were left intact and all three are still within 25 points of championship leader Joan Mir on the Suzuki - with Quartararo 14 adrift, Vinales 19 behind and Morbidelli 25 back after his Teruel GP win.

Vinales admits he'll need to "risk" a lot to overtake on the M1, which has been a weakness this year. But, more troublingly, he admits he has "lost everything" with the bike since his Misano victory in September and he doesn't know why

The reception to this penalty has polarised the paddock. Yamaha's defence of ignorance hasn't washed with some, with Suzuki boss Davide Brivio claiming a "shadow" will be cast over the season if Yamaha wins the championship, while Ducati felt a "dangerous precedent" had been set. Honda's Alex Marquez was far more blunt.

"What is clear at the end is that they have cheated or have not been within the regulations," the Honda rider, 16th at the end of Friday's European GP running, said.

Quartararo, Vinales and Morbidelli denied they knew anything about Yamaha's illegal valves, with Vinales stating when asked by Autosport: "I wasn't aware of this, I didn't know, until the last moment I didn't know nothing. For sure, Yamaha kept it on the side because they didn't want to disturb the riders, they didn't want to make any confusion in the team. So, I didn't know. I think they managed the best way they can."

Suzuki's Alex Rins was another who was critical of the FIM Stewards' penalty, given the implications it has on the championship battle, while Marquez doubted the riders' claims of being unaware of the situation.

The reality is, however, no punishment handed down from an FIM office will be as severe as the one Yamaha has given itself because of this. From their allocated five engines for the 14-race 2020 season, both SRT riders' first and second units were illegal, while for Vinales it was his first and third.

With Vinales losing another from his allocation because of a technical issue, he was left with just two to use for the rest of the season from the second round onwards (he briefly practiced with his first and third in the Styrian race, but he crashed out and so no points were deducted from Yamaha for a result). And the Spaniard has paid the price.

Admitting on Thursday in Valencia that he was having to limit mileage in the Teruel GP, Vinales was essentially left with one engine after the other developed a small fault. With three races left to run and a championship still on the line, Yamaha was forced to unseal a sixth engine and lock Vinales into a pitlane start for Sunday's race.

"Still yesterday we were discussing if to risk to go with the number five engine doing just a few laps in the practices and risk in the race and wishing we don't stop the bike," Vinales said. "But for me it's too risky. If you are first [in the points] with 20 points, you can do. But the case is that we don't have the setting, the bike is not working, and then we'd have to face it [the race] with an old engine. So, there was no point."

While it would be easy to look at it from the point of view that Vinales has a fresh engine for the final three rounds, it still has a lot of running to do between now and the chequered flag in Portugal - and an failure on his new engine will likely mean unsealing another and face yet another pitlane start.

The Ricardo Tormo Circuit is a tough track to overtake on at the best of times, let alone from the back of the grid. Dani Pedrosa did win the 2012 race from pitlane, but it was a flag-to-flag contest and the Honda rider benefited from a late crash from leader Jorge Lorenzo. Rossi also picked his way from last on the grid in 2015 and got as high as fourth, but that was on a grid filled with slow Open Class machinery.

Vinales admits he'll need to "risk" a lot to overtake on the M1, which has been a weakness this year. But, more troublingly, he admits he has "lost everything" with the bike since his Misano victory in September and he doesn't know why. A second off the pace in the wet FP1 and almost the same deficit in the drying FP2 on Friday wasn't a great start.

Nor was it any better for Quartararo. He was last in the wet FP1, 2.7s off the pace, and was just under a second down in FP2 - albeit likely to move into Q2 owing to wet weather being forecast for Saturday morning. But, after his struggles to ninth in the wet French GP, not a lot has changed.

"The feeling was really bad," Quartararo said when asked by Autosport if he'd found anything in the wet from Le Mans. "[I] found not any good feeling and we had an idea to try in FP2 if it was raining, and in the end it was mixed conditions, so we couldn't try it."

He added later: "I'm frustrated that we're in Valencia and we still don't have a base in the wet conditions. So, we need to have this under control and be more regular in the wet conditions."

After his nightmare Aragon double-header, in which he scored just eight points, it's the wrong time for Quartararo to struggle. Championship leader Mir trailed him in 10th in practice and had a similarly difficult run to 17th in the wet FP1, so more rain over the weekend may not be a bad thing. Quartararo also admitted he wasn't overly worried about the same fate which has befallen Vinales in regards to engine life hitting him, but he won't be comfortable.

Quartararo appears to be exclusively using engines four and five from his allocation now, with the latter the one he has raced in three of the last four grands prix. Autosport maths states that unit has around 645 miles on it already (not accounting for his Valencia running on Friday, as MotoGP doesn't release engine usage data until Sundays of a race weekend).

Though his Friday showing for the European GP may have been low-key, Mir's methodical approach to the Yamaha debacle mirrors that of his championship bid

SRT team-mate Morbidelli, who was once again Yamaha's leading light in third overall after strong runs in the wet and drying conditions in both sessions, appears to be the Japanese marque's best hope of the championship based on current form. But his engine situation is dire. He's only had two available since the Czech GP owing to an issue, and his favoured fifth engine for races has done an estimated 1571.95 miles since then.

When asked by Autosport if he was worried he'd need to unseal an extra engine, and thus incur a pitlane start, Morbidelli simply replied: "I am worried about other things at the moment. I am worried about things that are more important for me, setting up the bike, trying to ride."

As for why he seems to have more pace than Quartararo in the tricky conditions experienced on Friday, Morbidelli offered: "I don't know, I can see Fabio is struggling quite a lot in the wet and I can see that he has a really particular style in the dry that is a strong point, that is very aggressive and very positive. Maybe this could be one thing that is not working in the wet, but I cannot point to the problem positively."

The 2020 MotoGP campaign has been a whirlwind of drama, born out of dramatic circumstances in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the end of it to be somewhat overshadowed by controversy over Yamaha's engines is probably fitting. As Mir affirms: "I want to do it with everything on track, with everybody on track and this is like this. I think that I don't want to win this championship with all these things [penalties deciding it]. So, I prefer this, I want all the riders on track."

Though his Friday showing for the European GP may have been low-key, Mir's methodical approach to the Yamaha debacle mirrors that of his championship bid.

Yamaha's title hopes may not have been ended in an FIM office, but its own failings in building its 2020 engines and its "internal oversight" of the rules now looks like it is costing it dearly as the final triple-header kicks off. And, though he won't admit to it, this has only strengthened Mir's position as the championship leader.