Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1498809
VOLUME ISSUE MAY , P141 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 contin - ued requests for more power have fallen on deaf ears. He is now thoroughly dis - heartened. Although third- fastest times in post-Jerez tests must have been a fillip (Mor - bidelli 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 attri - butes. 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 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? Quartararo must be exhausted after his continued requests for more power have fallen on deaf ears. 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 sec - ond 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 depar - ture 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 stabil - ity 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 intro - duction of the cross-plane crank emulated their adhesion-en- hancing 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 dis - tant 19th, and the Yamaha satel- lite team spat the dummy and decamped to Aprilia. But Quar- tararo'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 an - other two years. Clearly, they promised him enough of an improvement to make up his mind. But the upgrades, such as