Why Honda and Yamaha have been left behind in MotoGP's new era

The Japanese traditions of racing that led Honda and Yamaha to dominate MotoGP have become their main burdens at a time when the championship has required manufacturers to modernise their structures and adapt to the new times.

Although that impression could be viewed as subjective, the statistics are not. Two weeks ago, at Sachsenring, Honda failed to score points for the first time in a grand prix since 1982. A week later it was Yamaha who left Assen with nothing for the first time since Misano 1989. Those two eventualities are too extraordinary not to be related, a suspicion that is absolutely validated when one digs a little beyond the results and talks to members of both teams.

The difference between the slump Honda is going through, arguably the worst in its history in the championship, and the issues that Yamaha is racing, is evident. Despite being on sick leave since before the Catalan Grand Prix and not having been able to race in Indonesia and Argentina, Marc Marquez is still the highest placed rider (13th) among those competing for HRC.

Fabio Quartararo, on the other hand, is the benchmark of the grid and leads the overall standings with a 21-point margin over Aleix Espargaro, who this Sunday at Assen cut 13 points off the Frenchman after he made his first big mistake of the season and ended up on the ground twice.

At the same time, while Honda occupies the last place in the classification reserved for constructors, Yamaha is second. However, this contrast cannot camouflage common elements, which in this comparison play a decisive role. The main one is the dependence of both on Quartararo and Marquez.

In fact, all 172 points that Yamaha has accumulated in the manufacturers' world championship are attributable to the reigning champion. Quartararo is the only one of the four riders riding an M1 who has found any success on the bike in 2022, because he knows how to get the best out of it. At the halfway point of the season the second Yamaha in the standings is that of 19th-placed Franco Morbidelli, whose best result is the seventh place he achieved in a wet Indonesian GP.

For Marquez, his intermittent absences since he broke his arm at Jerez in 2020 have only exposed the seams of the RC213V, a prototype that no one so far has managed to crack.

The yawning gulf behind Quartararo is exposed by the fact Yamaha's second-highest ranked rider in the standings is Franco Morbidelli in 19th

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

"Think about how Yamaha would be if they didn't have Fabio right now, and you'll realise that there's not so much contrast between one team and the other," a Honda source tells Autosport. "What's happening is that the European structures, like Aprilia and Ducati, have adapted to the new situation in MotoGP, and to the new technology. And the Japanese have been left behind.

"Now the European brands are much better organised, grouped by specific departments. There's the aerodynamics division, the electronics division, the chassis division, the tyre division, the R&D division, with specialists in each of those subjects."

Unlike the in-house situations at Aprilia, Ducati or KTM, there are many new faces in the Honda workshop. Most of the engineers who have arrived at HRC this year are very young - not a bad thing in of itself, but mainly a drawback as a result of lacking experience. But if the lack of experience of the technicians was not enough of a problem, the lack of continuity makes the choppy waters even more difficult to navigate.

Although they do not publicly acknowledge it, most of the HRC members consulted by this writer agree that the lack of stability does not help, because it prevents the creation of solid work dynamics. The communication between the Japanese faction and the one in charge of managing the racing team, mostly European, does not add up either.

"The European factories have changed the working system and the method through which the bikes evolve. They are much faster, there is more communication and more people" Alex Marquez

"Aprilia's work philosophy at the moment is completely different from Honda's," explains Antonio Jimenez, the track engineer to Aleix Espargaro who before joining Aprilia worked at Honda and Yamaha. "Also, we are all involved and contribute our ideas. You could say that the organisation is much more transversal."

One of his colleagues at Noale spent the last seven years at Honda, then at Suzuki. He said: "In terms of technology, there is no colour between the elements and procedures we use at Aprilia and Ducati and those used by the Japanese".

This engineer is basically referring to tools in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and simulation. "All this is inherited from Formula 1," stresses this technician, referencing Aprilia's CEO in racing Massimo Rivola, who signed for the brand in 2019 after extensive F1 experience with Toro Rosso and Ferrari.

The difference in working practices was also explained by Alex Marquez, the day it was made official that in 2023 he will join the Gresini Ducati team from LCR Honda.

Rivola (left) has been credited with turning around Aprilia's fortunes, bringing practices used in F1

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

"The European factories have changed the working system and the method through which the bikes evolve," he said. "They are much faster, there is more communication and more people. They are more similar to F1 teams, and they reduce reaction times. That makes the difference in such a tight championship."

Rivola's role at Aprilia is similar to that of Gigi Dall'Igna at Ducati. They, or someone from the group that surrounds them, signs off on the latest technical innovations that have appeared in MotoGP, which started off with the F1-like approach to developing aerodynamics that Ducati pioneered. This continued with the height adjusters, front and rear, of the last three years.

"To find the latest Honda innovation you have to go back to the seamless gearbox (2011) and from Yamaha, it doesn't even come to mind," says a MotoGP engineer who currently works for one of the three Japanese companies.

"The Japanese are always lagging behind in that area as well. That's why they need people who read the regulations the way the Europeans do," someone within Yamaha said.

The dynamic that has been established in MotoGP, where the differences have been reduced to a thousandth of a second, leads one to believe that the traditions that until recently had allowed the Japanese constructors to reign supreme will not change in the short term.

The hiring of Luca Marmorini by Yamaha, to find that lack of power that Quartararo and the other riders have craved, can be interpreted as a sign of its will to adapt. At Honda, however, the team has confidence in its methods to pull it out of the mire.

"We are going to get out of this situation because we are Honda and always have been," insists Alberto Puig, HRC team manager.

With Suzuki leaving at the end of this year, the question for the two remaining Japanese brands in MotoGP is no longer whether they should rethink their methods, but how long it will take to do so.

Honda is confident it can resolve its current troubles, but no rider has yet surpassed the absent Marc Marquez's points total

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images