Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
The MotoGP Struggles of Japan Inc.
Once upon a time, it was unthinkable that the two major Japanese racing factories would be taking a back seat in the premier racing series. Yet that’s how it’s been for the past five years: Japan Inc. playing an also-ran role, while European brands dominate the results.
The agony is shared between Honda—still by far the most successful factory in Grand Prix history, with more GP wins and more Constructors’ titles even than the long-dominant MV Agusta. And Yamaha, second in race wins.
Both are racing stalwarts who built their reputations on racing success. But over the past six years, they have been handed a pasting by burgeoning European marques, mainly Ducati, sometimes by KTM, and this year especially by rampant Aprilia.
Whether through complacency or simple human error, or both, they both fell well on the wrong side of the very small margins that make a very big difference when it comes to the checkered flag.
Honda’s problems go back longer, coinciding with those of one-time flag-bearer Marc Marquez. He won six titles for Repsol Honda from 2013 to 2019, then crashed and hurt himself in 2020 on a bike that had become more and more difficult to ride. Indeed, close to impossible for anyone other than Marc himself.
Marc did struggle to three wins in 2021; Alex Rins scraped just one in 2023. Then followed its longest drought, briefly interrupted when Johann Zarco fluked it at a wet French GP in 2025. The company had won at least one race every year from 1982 to 2019, and often more than 10.
Yamaha’s last title success was more recent, with Fabio Quartararo in 2021. But that was also the last time it won a race. Back when Valentino Rossi was giving Yamaha serial success 15 years ago, he was already urging them to build a V4 to conform to the rest of the pack. Yamaha refused then, and continued to do so as the results slumped.
The past two seasons have seen both make radical changes, trying to redress the balance.
For Honda, it was philosophical and must have cost a lot of pride—mainly poaching Aprilia engineer Romano Albesiano to join Spaniard Alberto Puig in the upper echelons of the MotoGP hierarchy. A radical step for a fiercely independent and proudly Japanese company.
This was not to replace its own engineers, but to introduce a more European and less hidebound way of going racing. Hitherto, a culture of strict hierarchy and choking protocol had been holding development back.
Albesiano has described how there were plenty of different parts to test when he arrived for 2025. It took until 2026 for his input to begin to bear fruit. The Honda this season is much more competitive than it has been for years.
Simply put, what he brought was a less cumbersome way of assessing the value of what was available, then getting the good bits fitted to the bikes. Less committees, more action.
Improved results have been plain to see this season. Top of the four regular riders is Luca Marini, a close 11th in the championship and ahead of all the KTM riders but Pedro Acosta, with a best finish of fifth. More remarkable, the performance of rookie Diogo Moreira, fresh from winning Moto2, and lately mixing it now and then even with Marc Marquez. Nobody told him the Honda was no good.
Yamaha had already gone the more-Europeans route, basing its effort in Italy and recruiting staff from Ducati and KTM. Its change for 2026 was technical, finally dumping its long-standing dedication to the increasingly uncompetitive inline-four to join the rest with a V4.
So far, it’s been magnificently underwhelming, to the extent of completely demoralizing its star rider and greatest asset, Fabio Quartararo. One third of the way into the year, he is being paid vast sums to flounder around near the back with a long face. Clearly he can’t wait for his 2027 switch to Honda.
One can hardly blame him, after herculean efforts in early races yielded little joy, a best finish of fifth in a much-depleted Catalunya GP, and sixth at home in France.
The other riders continue to put in a good effort, and Yamaha’s rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu—lacking preconceptions of how a MotoGP bike should feel—is showing signs of getting to grips with the V4. But the results remain disappointing.
Yamaha is obliged to take the long view. They are learning new things. Making progress. They say.
Happily for them, everyone is starting again from scratch with the new regulations for next year, which at least levels the playing field.
If nothing else, the plight of the once overbearing Japanese factories illustrates an important truth: in MotoGP, the margins between hero and zero are very, very small.
Yet very, very painful.CN
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