Yamaha, Honda MotoGP concession hopes face stiff KTM opposition

MotoGP’s Japanese manufacturers are enduring a torrid 2023 campaign as both occupy the last spots on the constructors’ table having enjoyed very little success this season.

Honda scored a victory with Alex Rins at the Americas GP, but this has proven to be an outlier as no other HRC podium has come since, while Yamaha has just two rostrums to its credit.

In recent months, Dorna Sports’ chief sporting officer Carlos Ezpeleta confirmed the commercial rights holder was looking to introduce concessions to Honda and Yamaha to help them overturn their woes.

Concessions were brought in for the 2014 season to help new and struggling manufacturers, with Ducati, Aprilia, KTM and Suzuki all enjoying these benefits at this time as all eventually became race winners again.

Honda and Yamaha are the only marques to have never run under concessions, and under the current rule framework would not qualify.

As such, Dorna would need to get unanimous agreement in the manufacturers’ association (MSMA) for Honda and Yamaha to be able to receive concessions – something KTM is opposed to.

“I have a very clear, tough, opinion on concessions, and we would not want to change that opinion,” KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer said at the Austrian GP, as reported by de.motorsport.com.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“So, the regulations are already like this: if you are a newcomer, you get these concessions.

“But Honda and Yamaha are just in God’s name not newcomers. And their success is just not that long ago.

“Honda won a grand prix this year, we [KTM] haven’t. Is the bike that bad? They won the grand prix in America this year. Yamaha was on the podium twice, world champion [in 2021] with [Fabio] Quartararo.”

It’s not inconceivable that Dorna can achieve unanimity from the MSMA. A recent format tweak proposed for the British GP prior to the summer break was initially blocked by Ducati, who wanted it to be introduced in 2024.

But, over the summer break, Ducati changed its stance and this change to Friday’s sessions came into immediate effect at Silverstone two weeks ago.

Autosport recently spoke to RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira, who raced under concessions at KTM, on the matter and he felt the rules on this shouldn’t be changed exclusively for the Japanese manufacturers.