Yamaha, Honda progress to take until 2025? ‘They are concessions, not magic’
No quick fix to transform Honda and Yamaha’s MotoGP fortunes.
Yamaha and Honda now enjoy a range of technical perks over their European MotoGP rivals, courtesy of this year’s revised concession ‘ranking’ system.
But Aleix Espargaro, who went through the previous concession system with Aprilia, has warned that the perks - which include private testing with race riders and exemption from the in-season engine design freeze - are not a magic wand.
The crucial ingredient is time and Espargaro tips that it will take until 2025 for an upswing in results by the Japanese manufacturers.
“They are concessions, not magic. You need time,” Espargaro said, when asked if he expected the Japanese brands to be closer by now.
“We will see last winter's work in the next season, I think.
“Because last winter they started to sign new engineers, they started to develop new things that they didn't have time to put on track yet.
“So hopefully for everybody who loves this sport, we will see improvements from Yamaha and Honda… in the 2025 season.”
Yamaha and Honda are currently on the lowest ‘D’ concession ranking, meaning access to the full range of benefits. Ducati is in ‘A’, having scored over 85% of the maximum constructors’ points, with KTM and Aprilia in ranking ‘C’.
So far this season, Yamaha has a best race finish of fifth place (Jerez Sprint, 3rd before Fabio Quartararo’s tyre pressure penalty) and seventh in a Grand Prix (Portimao).
Honda, which has lost star rider Marc Marquez and COTA winner Alex Rins, has a best race result of 9th (Jerez Sprint) and 12th in a Grand Prix (Lusail, Portimao, Jerez).
At this time last year, Yamaha’s highest race result was 3rd for Quartararo at COTA, where former LCR rider Rins took Honda's only victory of the season.
Fast forward a year and the top Yamaha rider is again Quartararo, in 12th (11th at this time last year) with the top Honda rider now Joan Mir in 16th (Takaaki Nakagami 17th last year).
In terms of constructors’ points, which will continue to determine the ranking grade for concessions, there has been a big drop for both Japanese brands so far.
The score for each manufacturer compared to the opening four rounds of last year is as follows:
- Ducati: 133 points (2024) / 137 points (2023) = -4 points
- KTM: 95 / 81 = +14 points
- Aprilia: 82 / 67 = +15 points
- Yamaha: 27 / 49 = -22 points
- Honda: 13 / 61 = -48 points
Opening four rounds of 2023: Portimao, Termas, COTA, Jerez.
Opening four rounds of 2024: Lusail, Portimao, COTA, Jerez.
Aprilia is the only factory with the same rider line-up 2023 and 2024.
