Two races, two long lap penalties, and three points is what Cal Crutchlow’s wild card got him in Japan. The first for the British rider since he started with Yamaha in 2021. A performance in line with that of the two official riders, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, who experienced one of the most complicated weekends of the season in Motegi, at the home event of the Japanese constructor.
At the tail end of the Constructors’ rankings, with 11 points behind the 4th place occupied by Honda, and 359 points from the leader, Ducati, the constructor is aware of the limitations and shortcomings of its M1, to the extent that they tried to secure Crutchlow until 2026. “They want me to sign a new three-year contract,” the 37-year-old confessed at the end of the weekend in Japan, according to statements reported by our colleagues Crash.net.
An extension of his contract seems possible only if Yamaha reviews the work program if its test team. “I had nine weeks off at Sepang [tests]. Then I did three tests in two weeks. Then I had fourteen weeks off. Then I did three tests in two weeks. We need to make sure we’re more consistently on the bike, also for the engineers. That’s how you make progress,” the English rider observed. “So, hopefully, they’ll come with a better plan, and I’ll make a decision.”
Crutchlow: “We don’t need more power but a smoother engine”
Besides the test calendar, even the bike he rode at Motegi didn’t entirely convince Crutchlow, according to whom the choice to use the wider hull on the M1 partly compromised the collection of his data, making the prototype less manageable: “We have to get data, but the bike is difficult to ride with this much downforce. The bike is very heavy,” he said. “I probably have better acceleration now, but we lose everywhere else.”
Acceleration is one of the weakest points of the Yamaha prototype. But, unlike Quartararo, who is demanding more power for 2024, Crutchlow is convinced that engine fluidity is the key to achieving further development.
“When I tried this engine last year, I said it would be a problem, and now we have a problem,” Cal said. “We don’t need more power. We need a smoother engine.”
Justifying his theory, the tester added: “Let’s say all the bikes have three-hundred horsepower. On the exit of every corner, you don’t use three-hundred horsepower, you use two hundred. If you want more power, you can turn the power up. So, you turn the power up, but then you don’t exit the corner well. I know what the other constructors are doing. We use a lot more of Newton meters of torque than they do, and our engine isn’t smooth. So, we need to go in this direction. When we go in that direction, we’ll see the acceleration, like the 2019 bike. We’ll be faster at the end of the straight, because the bike will exit corners faster. Now we’re just spinning. It’s a problem that could be fixed with electronics, but then, when you spin more, you go into traction control, so you end up going slower. It needs to come from the engine character. I believe we have enough top power at the moment. The problem is that we don’t exit corners well.”