Michael Scott | July 20, 2022
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This has been a particularly historic season. Not all the landmarks have been positive, however. Two of motorcycle racing’s icons have been stricken with historic failings that contradict the high achievements of many decades.
Honda first—and it happened in Germany’s pocket-sized Sachsenring, a track where even before Marc Marquez embarked on eight years of serial domination the Big H had staked a claim for ownership. Dani Pedrosa won it the previous three years, and the preceding 10 Honda riders, ranging from Doohan to Rossi to Barros to Gibernau, had also taken to the top step of the podium, more than any other manufacturer.
Until 2022. Now, on an afternoon when traditional rival Yamaha celebrated a Quartararo victory as calm and controlling as any by Marquez, Honda packed up their travel cases with long faces. Not one of their four bikes had scored a single point.
Photo by Gold & Goose
Nakagami crashed out, Espargaro retired in pain, Alex Marquez’s ride-height gizmo giz-didn’t and although Stefan Bradl did finish, he was 16th and last, after having to back away from any fights because of severe overheating.
This was the first time since 1982, the year they returned with the three-cylinder two-stroke after the debacle of the oval-piston NR500. New boy Freddie Spencer was joined by defending champion Marco Lucchinelli and HRC regular Takazumi Katayama, and Freddie was on the podium at the first attempt in Argentina. Only in round three was there not a Honda in the top 10 (the points-system of the time). From then for the next four decades there was not a single race without at least one Honda in the points.
Just to put this in proportion, in the same period, Honda also won 24 Constructors’ titles, outranking MV Agusta and leaving Yamaha trailing with 12 (plus two earlier wins) and took by far the lion’s share of race wins. There was no fluking any of this.
Yamaha did not have long to gloat, had they been so inclined. Just two weeks later at Assen, they suffered in exactly the same way. Quartararo crashed out, and the remaining three simply continued with their individually and collectively disastrous seasons. This was the third race this year that none of them—Morbidelli, Dovizioso and Darryn Binder—finished in the points.
For factory Yamahas (not counting races where Roc- or Harris-Yamahas filled in the gaps) this was a first all zero since 1985.
Thus, both of the giants of modern racing fell flat in succession. Nobody at these Japanese race departments, each with long and proud traditions, will be taking this lightly. Especially those engineers by now in serious jeopardy of being transferred to end their careers in the aftermarket luggage-fastening design division.
In each case, the reasons are the same. Of course, a resurgence of European design, embodied not only by Ducati and KTM but even more this year by Aprilia; nor even the preponderance of eight Ducatis packing out the result sheets, are clearly important factors.
What really counts is that Honda and Yamaha have disappeared down the same design wormhole. They have built fine racing bikes, that only one rider can use to win races.
It’s been like that at Honda for the past several years. Understandably. Marc was brilliant from the start, and all development centered around him. But his brilliance masked that the RC213V was becoming more and more of a handful.
What really counts is that Honda and Yamaha have disappeared down the same design wormhole. They have built fine racing bikes, that only one rider can use to win races.
A series of other fine riders, whose skill was never in question, suffered as a result. Cal Crutchlow was one, the only other Honda rider to win races since 2017. He and others, including racing giant Jorge Lorenzo, were tossed into the gravel with painful regularity. The bike bit Marc, too, at the start of 2020, and they’ve been at sea ever since, hence the dismal struggles and many painful crashes of other Honda riders this year.
Yamaha has been tending the same way. Quartararo, like Rossi and Lorenzo before him, has a particular ability to use corner speed and smooth technique to compensate for a lack of acceleration and top speed. But he’s unique. Neither Morbidelli nor Dovizioso, each a former World Champion, can get anywhere near him, and they’re getting badly beaten as a result.
This has also been coming bit by bit. In 2020, Morbidelli won three races and was second overall, on a year-old bike. In 2022, on the latest version developed around Quartararo, he is struggling to get into the points at all.
Just as well Yamaha persuaded Fabulous Fabio to stay on for two more years a couple of weeks ago. And just as well, Marc is coming back next year, all patched up and straightened out again.
And if either of those things don’t happen, the former leaders of the class are in serious trouble. CN
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