But seriously, I agree. The Yamaha seems a 'good' bike but needs more speed. The Honda looks a mess and is not only slow, but gives its riders zero feel for what it is doing, then tries to kill them or send them into orbit.
Deciphering (Amateurishly) the comments from the Yamaha camp, these are the problems they were/ are dealing with:
1) Balance of the bike: when they went aero, the balance changed. Every factory has to get over this hill and Yamaha tried to do it how they knew in the past, with the chassis. Of course this didn’t work and pissed off Quartararo in the process, but they achieved a breakthrough with the Dallara designed aero. This problem seems under control now.
2) Corner entry: the new engine has too much inertia, it makes the bike not want to change directions easily or want to turn into a corner, pushing it wide. Basically ruining everything good about the ghost of M1 past.
3) Corner exit: their electronics cut in too quick. You hear it in the trackside videos, the Yamaha TC cuts in far earlier and far more frequently than the euro bikes.
If they solve problems 2 and 3, they should have a half decent bike at hand. And I’m confident they will, with enough time.
Now Honda; they brought a donkey to a tap dancing contest and now have to make it do their bidding. And they decided to offer it YouTube tutorials. Make what you will out of it.
Insurance companies seem to like this approach though. Both for riders and equipment.
