Mat Oxley: The MotoGP concessions to give Honda and Yamaha a helping hand

How times change. A decade ago MotoGP introduced new technical regulations to help the manufacturers that were struggling to keep the dominant Japanese makers – Honda and Yamaha – in sight. The idea, of course, was to narrow the gap between the front and back of the grid, encouraging existing manufacturers to stay committed to the championship and new manufacturers to enter. At the same time the rules would create closer racing, encouraging more people to tune in, thereby increasing income, through TV rights and so on. A win-win.

The name that MotoGP rights-holder Dorna really wanted to help with its new development concessions was Ducati, which had fallen on hard times since losing its star rider Casey Stoner, who had a unique talent to tame the company’s wild Desmosedici MotoGP bike. Ducati went five full seasons, from 2011 to 2015, without a single victory.

Dorna introduced its first concessions rules in 2015. The concessions allowed Ducati, plus Suzuki and Aprilia, which were returning to MotoGP after several years absence, to use more engines, more fuel and a better range of tyres than Honda and Yamaha were allowed. Ducati started winning again in 2016 – thanks to concessions – and now dominates MotoGP.

Last season the Bologna-based brand won the riders’ championship for the second year running, took the constructors’ title for the fourth year in a row, won 17 of 20 grands prix, monopolised the podium at nine rounds and scored 96% (!) of available constructors’ points.

So guess who needs a helping hand now? Honda and Yamaha finished the 2023 season last and second to last in the constructors’ championship, having been left behind by the Formula 1-inspired technologies introduced in recent seasons by, irony of ironies, Ducati.

Since 2016 Ducati has used downforce aerodynamics, tuned mass dampers and ride-height adjusters to get ahead. None of the other manufacturers were keen to head down this new road but the developments were approved by MotoGP, even though F1 had banned tuned mass dampers and ride-height regulators.

Ducati’s fellow European brands Aprilia and KTM have just about kept up, but the Japanese brands have totally failed to master these new technologies. The last two seasons have been so humbling for Honda and Yamaha that Dorna was concerned the companies might walk from the championship, damaging its standing and hurting its worth, in case majority shareholders Bridgepoint (a London-based private-equity business) want to sell it.

Last summer Dorna told all five manufacturers that it wanted to renegotiate the concessions rules to help the stragglers catch up. Unsurprisingly, Ducati wasn’t keen for this to happen. Its attitude was straightforward: we fought back from the bottom of the championship with the current concessions, so Honda and Yamaha should do the same.

Dorna, however, was adamant. We don’t know what tricks Dorna management pulled behind the scenes to get Ducati and, to lesser extent, Aprilia and KTM, to agree to the revised concessions, but somehow they did.

The new rules give any manufacturer that scored less than 35% of available constructors’ points (that’s Honda and Yamaha, of course, which achieved 25% and 26% score rates in 2023) a whole range of benefits. These start with engine development. Other manufacturers have their engine specs frozen at the start of each season, so no upgrades within their allocation of eight engines. Honda and Yamaha are now able to use as many different engine specs as they like, within their allocation of 10 engines, during the 22-round 2024 season.

Honda and Yamaha are also allowed to do more testing (which is limited by the number of tyres allocated to each manufacturer), they can test at any circuit, with full-time riders as well as test riders, and they can field up to six wild-card entries.

Meanwhile, Ducati get 35% fewer test tyres than Honda and Yamaha and 25% fewer than KTM and Aprilia, who finished second and third in the 2023 constructors’ championship. And Ducati has lost the right to any wild-card entries, which allow test riders to join the grid. This makes sense because there are eight Desmosedicis on the 22-rider grid at every race, twice as many as Aprilia, Honda and KTM and four times as many as Yamaha.

Ducati isn’t entirely happy. “I support the new concessions system, because it’s important for the show that any manufacturer having difficulties has the chance to improve,” says Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna. “I am happy to give the Japanese the chance to recover but I don’t feel the same way about Aprilia and KTM having an advantage compared to us. We now have fewer tyres to develop our bike and fewer wild cards, but Aprilia won some races last season and KTM fought for wins all season, so this seems strange.”

“Perhaps the Japanese problems go deeper than engineering”

Will the new rules help Honda and Yamaha work their way back? In theory, yes. However, how their full-time riders and crews will find the time and energy to go testing with 22 race weekends between March and November is another matter.

Perhaps the problems faced by the Japanese manufacturers go deeper than engineering. Some people in MotoGP believe that the issue is company culture, not a lack of engineering capabilities. We’ll find out. Pre-season testing starts at Sepang, Malaysia, in early February.

Mat Oxley has covered motorcycle racing for many years – and also has the distinction of being an Isle of Man TT winner
Follow Mat on Twitter @matoxley