I’ve always loved this video (in fact I think I’ve posted it before,) but I was thinking about it this morning after I read an article where Valentino Rossi is complaining that his 2017 Yamaha is “impossible” to ride in the wet. And it made me wonder how Yamaha has managed to get the 2017 bike so wrong when the 2016 iteration was such a brilliant bike, by everyone’s reckoning, the best bike in the paddock. Of course you only need to look at the performance of the Rookie of the Year, Johann Zarco, who is riding a 2016 bike to see how badly Yamaha messed up this year. From a stunning start to the season with some even predicting a maiden championship for Vinales, the “works” team has slipped further and further behind with Vinales out of the title hunt 56 points behind Marquez and Rossi a massive 85 points behind.
Of course this isn’t the first instance in grand prix racing when a Japanese manufacturer has introduced an “improved” bike that really wasn’t. Those of us with long memories will recall the blazing rows that Barry Sheene had with Suzuki in the 1970’s where they took the RG500 on which Barry won two titles and turned it into a bike on which he couldn’t win and in which he had no confidence. “But, Barry-san,” they said, “the bike is better,” “Well, how come the lap times are worse?” Barry would reply :). It seems that this year, Suzuki have managed to do the same thing again with the 2017 bike being not a patch on the 2016 model that saw Vinales produce such brilliance. It therefore seems that they haven’t learned much.
And it seems that Suzuki (and I’m not beating on Suzuki, far from it,) are serial offenders in this regard. Who can forget the horror year that Kenny Roberts Jr experienced in 2001 trying to defend his 500cc world championship of the year before?
Is it only Suzuki? Oh, no, it’s not. Big Red has also had more than its share of bloopers. Their offences go all the way back to the glory days of Hailwood, Redman, Taveri et al. Their first 4 cylinder 500 in 1984 was supposed to carry their new world champion to even greater heights but did it? Nope, it was a horrible thing with the exhausts up and over the top of the engine, I mean, what were they thinking?They did eventually get it right, of course (throw enough money at any problem and you can solve it) but it cost Spencer the chance of a “double” Two steps backwards one step forwards? Perhaps. Then their 1988 blooper cost Wayne Gardner a chance of a “double” Latterly, they took a championship winning bike in 2014 and turned it into a turnip for 2015, a turnip so sour that Marquez actually reverted to the previous year’s bike in an attempt to stem the Yamaha tide.
The less said about Kawasaki’s abysmal MotoGp campaign the better. Despite having excellent riders, including Aussie, Anthony West, half the time the bikes looked like they were running in reverse and it was a merciful relief when it was announced that the programme had been suspended.
And what about Yamaha? Well, they have been mercifully free of such nonsense, possibly due to a continuity of staff and possibly due to a much greater trust in their riders than the other manufacturers have shown. Yes, there was that dreadful bike in 2004, was it? Bringing Jeremey Burgess and Rossi to the team supposedly cured that and all was sweetness and light. Of course Yamaha themselves had already solved the bike’s many issues before the Dynamic Duo arrived but it made good press to let people believe in the magic so what’s the harm? Yamaha certainly made the silk purse out of the sour’s ear though, that is for sure.
And so we get back to where we started, a winning team with arguably the best bike in the shed but they can’t make it work. It’s sure not the riders, and it’s sure not the staff. Part of the reason is that Michelin is still struggling to produce a consistent tyre but Honda and Ducati are winning and Yamaha isn’t so it’s not just that. The “freeze” on large scale development is also an issue but then my comment about the opposition applies here as well. And the Honda and the Ducati were supposed to be lesser bikes than the Yamaha in 2016, huh? And again I must add the word that is most telling, Zarco. When asked if he would like to see the Frenchman on a factory bike, Rossi politely said no, can you blame him?
Good bikes go bad; Japanese manufacturers especially have a long and disappointing history of taking a winner and turning it into an also-ran. Why? Who knows. Are they likely to stop doing so? Unlikely, the leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Finally, should I detail how far Ducati sank after the glory years of Casey Stoner? Best not to I don’t think. Happily the Bologna concern appears to have put all that behind them and to back on track, literally as well as figuratively. Even if Dovizioso DOESN’T win the title this year, Ducati can hold its head high. We can only hope that they don’t introduce an “improved bike” for 2018!