P120
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
I
f Yamaha was to write a navel-
gazing book about their 2020
season, that would
be the title. And the subhead:
"And without gaining anything
either."
The first race in Valencia
brought the latest blows in a
year of the perfect storm for the
MotoGP stalwarts. You have to
wonder what they have done to
deserve it.
It's flippant but at least superfi-
cially true to say that each racing
factory has its own distinct char-
acter: Honda, the austere face of
arrogant pride; Ducati, noisy and
temperamental Italian drama-
tists; KTM, humorless, earnest
and scarily efficient; Suzuki, the
blushing faux-virgins with a secret
wicked streak, Aprilia … well,
never mind.
Yamaha has always played the
role of the fundamentally decent
bloke: competitive and sporting for
sure, but with an open and honest
face. You'd instinctively trust him.
It was therefore completely—
radically—out of character that
they should become the latest
victims of the MotoGP police,
accused and convicted for, of all
things, cheating.
They had fallen badly foul of
the strict rules limiting not only
numbers of engines but also
freezing development and seal-
ing them throughout the season.
The result was the loss of both
Constructor and Team champion-
ship points.
Protestations of innocence
were not that well received by
their rivals, but it was clear that
there had not been any real
malevolence involved. Just some
sneakiness. Possibly inadvertent.
That's how it stands, in spite of
inevitable rumors and conspiracy
theories that there was some
more sinister intent. Innocent
until proven guilty. But punished
anyway.
To understand how it went
down, you need to recall Mo-
toGP's frozen engine develop-
ment policy. Each factory team
is allowed five engines per rider
(it had been seven, before Covid
cut the number of races back
from 20 to 14), and they are
sealed from the time of homolo-
HOW TO
CHEAT
WITHOUT
EVEN
TRYING