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The factory lost constructors and equipment points for the engines used in the first round of Jerez, plus the point won by Franco Morbidelli in Austria 2, when he used a Jerez 1 engine in practice, after admitting that he had changed valve manufacturers in connection with the sample engine provided to MotoGP organizers on March 25.
The controversy is that Yamaha riders have been allowed to keep all of their world championship points, meaning that Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales (first and second in the season-opening race) are still second and third in the chase. of the title behind Joan Mir from Suzuki.
The most outspoken on the subject was Alex Márquez from Repsol Honda, who said: “When you cheat, you have to accept and Yamaha accepted and they said they cheated, and they were with MSMA.
“But you know, we are the World Championship, MotoGP, everyone looks at us. We try to be the reference for young riders, for the little ones and we try to be an example with everything we do here.
“I think this is not the best example for everyone. I remember when I was very young in karting, you never know if a mechanic or a parent tried to adjust something and add something that is not legal.”
“At that moment you finish the race, they open the engine for you and imagine telling a 10-year-old boy that his mechanic cheated and they are disqualified from that race.
“We are not an example because that rule is for everyone and the penalty is not an example.
“For me it’s ridiculous because in the end the constructors’ championship, maybe next year everyone will remember who won that title this year, but in two years they will forget it.
“The most important thing here is to win the world rider title, and for me it is not a fair penalty for Yamaha.
“They also made a profit at Jerez but I don’t know if they take the profit for the rest of the year and the next, because the engine must remain the same. It is a ridiculous penalty in my opinion.”
Mir’s Suzuki team, led by Davide Brivio, while supporting the decision not to punish the Yamaha riders, added: “In my opinion, yes [Yamaha] win, there is a shadow in his championship. “
Yamaha said the valve supplier change was due “to internal oversight and incorrect understanding of current regulation,” adding that both types of valves “were manufactured according to a common design specification.”
However, it is rumored that while the physical size and shape were the same at both providers, the composition was different. If not, and both valve types were perfectly identical, it would have been impossible to prove a different vendor from examination alone.
Some valve difference would also explain why the supplier switch failed so badly in the form of two engine failures at Jerez 1, since Yamaha riders have been restricted to using their other engines.
The other engines are fitted with ‘stronger’ valves from the homologated original supplier, although Morbidelli still had a fault in Jerez 2, after which the maximum rpm is believed to have been reduced.
Yamaha explains the providers of ‘valve A’ and ‘valve B’
Lin Jarvis from Yamaha explained to BT sport how the situation happened and why Yamaha believed that combining valve suppliers for “identical” parts was not against the rules.
Except the valves weren’t identical, due to ‘nuances’ between the two suppliers and because Jarvis says there was a ‘glitch’ with the new batch. But nevertheless, The documentation needed to prove this flaw to Yamaha’s rivals could not be provided to MSMA, who would have to be convinced that Yamaha had not just pushed its tube design to the limit.
“There is a huge misunderstanding because people talk about ‘changing tubes,'” said Lin Jarvis of Yamaha. BT sport.
“We plan to run this season with a certain valve specification from a certain supplier. Over the past year, when we ordered parts, we understood that the supplier was going to stop producing that valve.
“Then Yamaha looked for another supplier with the same specification valve. No performance advantage. That was done and then [had a mix] of valves from both suppliers for the 2020 season. These valves were considered by Yamaha to be identical. The regulations don’t say you can’t use two different providers, they say the parts must be identical in all respects. This was the misunderstanding in Japan.
“The sample engine for this season was fitted with used valves, let’s call it a ‘type A’ valve. But we started the season with eight ‘type B’ valve engines. It was an innocent mistake of the regulations.
“Then we had a technical failure [at Jerez] And when we investigated, we found that not only were the ‘B’ valves different from the sample engine, but they had a technical fault. Some weakness. The batch produced followed a different procedure. So we asked MSMA to change the valves. We could not get the evidence from the valve supplier, so we withdrew that request and looked for another solution.
“But we were transparent from the beginning that we wanted to use the other [‘A’] valves, which are identical, and it was [during that discussion] that a red light alerted us that those valves could be considered different. So we discontinued the use of [Jerez] engines, plus training and qualifying in Austria for two drivers. All our engines, with the exception of the initial eight, have been equipped with the type [‘A’].
“So it was a mistake in the protocol because no advantage was gained. We should have asked permission … But we didn’t ‘change the valves.’
But the engine saga is far from over for Yamaha.
With his Jerez 1 engines parked, the others’ mileage increases: Vinales is forced to take an additional engine (sixth) in Valencia, which means he will start the race from the pit lane.
A similar fate could still await Quartararo and Morbidelli in the remaining three rounds …
