Yamaha MotoGP team boss Lin Jarvis says the Iwata brand is better at responding to the specific needs of its riders than rival marque Honda, despite Marc Marquez’s success.
While the development of Honda’s 2019-spec RC213V has been largely determined by five-time champion Marquez, Yamaha gives its factory riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales more flexibility to pursue different development paths.
Rossi and Vinales, for example, use different chassis components, as what suits one of them does not suit the other, a situation that also occurs at Honda with Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo.
Although Lorenzo, currently on the sidelines with injury, tried to push Honda to make its bike more user-friendly, he has more recently conceded the onus is on him to adapt to a bike that is winning races in Marquez’s hands, a sentiment echoed by Honda boss Alberto Puig.
Jarvis contrasted the “human” approach of Yamaha to the mode “dictatorial” approach of Honda, which he feels would suffer greatly without Marquez.
“I think Yamaha is capable of making a motorcycle tailored to each rider,” Jarvis told Motorsport.com.
“Honda responds to the peculiarities of its engineers. In general, Yamaha adapts better than Honda to the needs of its riders, to human contact. We are much more human.
“Sometimes it is good to follow a slightly more dictatorial line, but at other times it may be better to have a motorcycle that suits a greater number of riders. I think it is better to have a motorcycle that can be ridden by several riders.
“The partnership between Honda and Marquez is very powerful, but if Marc gets injured or decides to go to another brand, Honda will have many problems.”
He added: “Everything depends on the perspective you analyse things from and what suits you.
“Jorge and Cal [Crutchlow] have tried to highlight the supposed problem that Honda has, but on the other hand you have Marc’s successes and his level of competitiveness.
“We do not have any problem in following two different directions, we did it before with Valentino and Lorenzo and we won many titles with both of them.”
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
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