Michael Scott | May 10, 2023
Cycle News In The Paddock
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Is It Game Over For the Inline-Four?
One bad race might be a fluke. One bad season a setback. But when the problems persist into the next, it’s beginning to look like Game Over for 2021’s dominant champion Fabio Quartararo and the once-exemplary Yamaha inline-four. At least for this season, and maybe forever.
A series of poor qualifying performances this year has yielded problematic grid positions, further undermined by slow starts in and among the jostling pack, where things can easily go wrong. And have done, at Jerez quite badly.
In consequence, a single third place at a depleted U.S. GP sits alongside three zero scores out of a possible eight (counting the sprint races) so far. He sits a lowly 11th overall, 47 points adrift of leader Bagnaia.
This is not insuperable, with 16 sprint and 16 full-length races left, offering a grand total of 592 points (555, should rumors prove true that the new Indian GP will follow the Kazakhstan race into cancellation).
But it is ominous, especially after the Spanish GP, where the Frenchman might have expected his season to regain momentum. Jerez, a twisty and technical circuit, is one of the French rider’s favorites, and has, over the years, also been kind to the sweet-handling R1.
Quartararo’s happy Jerez record began in 2015 with his maiden Moto3 pole. In five MotoGP outings, he scored four poles and another front row, plus two wins and a second.
This year, after three more or less dismal opening rounds, he struggled to qualify 16th, two places below chronically embattled teammate Morbidelli. He was a pointless 12th in Saturday’s sprint and salvaged 10th and six points on Sunday in a crash-hit field, after two long-lap penalties. The first was punishment for having triggered a first-lap crash that injured the hapless Miguel Oliveira and brought red flags. Fabio and Yamaha both loudly complained of the injustice—it was a matter of overcrowding rather than any error on his part, they insisted, with some justification. The second long-lap was a pettifogging but necessary punishment for straying over the white line in his first time through the loop.
It was a compounding of ill fortune and disadvantage, and it does not take a pessimist to suggest that, in a year when an army of Ducatis and more than once the burgeoning KTMs are hugely dominant, and Aprilia ever stronger, Fabio’s title hopes are in tatters.
Through no fault of his own.
Yamaha’s elegant R1 is the last remaining MotoGP inline-four, after the unexpected departure of Suzuki at the end of last year. It looks to be fighting a losing battle. Has it reached the final lap?
It has been increasingly outpaced by the 90-degree V4s, espoused by every other manufacturer. The inline engine may have certain advantages, in packaging for one, and for other subtle reasons including the gyroscopic, enhancing stability and allowing for high corner speeds. But in the context of a modern MotoGP race, it loses out to the punchy power of the V4s, even after the 2004 introduction of the cross-plane crank emulated their adhesion-enhancing off-beat firing intervals.
The Yamaha (and the Suzuki) put up a good fight over recent years, while Ducati struggled with its own handling issues, Honda went into a Marquez-less slump, and Aprilia and KTM played catch-up. But the Iwata factory was on the back foot.
Last year, Morbidelli (title runner up in 2020, remember) foundered and slumped to a distant 19th, and the Yamaha satellite team spat the dummy and decamped to Aprilia. But Quartararo’s superhuman efforts meant he was still a race winner and title challenger. It really was heroic, although his complaints about a lack of acceleration and speed grew louder all year long.
Rather surprisingly, he signed to stay with Yamaha for another two years. Clearly, they promised him enough of an improvement to make up his mind. But the upgrades, such as they are, have left the Yamaha still uncompetitive against the improved European bikes. Even the sweet handling can no longer be trusted, at the level of risk required for Quartararo to compete.
Rossi entreated Yamaha to build a V4 before his own results hit the skids. His later years might have been different had they listened.
For his part, Quartararo must be exhausted after his continued requests for more power have fallen on deaf ears.
He is now thoroughly disheartened. Although third-fastest times in post-Jerez tests must have been a fillip (Morbidelli was down in 16th).
As much as a successful bike needs horsepower and handling, a rider needs to feel confidence. It underpins all the other attributes. Quartararo’s is at crisis point, and 2023 is now a lost cause. He’s run out of steam, in every sense.
If he can overcome this, he will be a genuine racing giant. Yamaha could help by making him a V4. CN
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