Things, feelings, points about 2020.

It is amazing to me that indeed Vinales and Fabio seem to be so much alike. Lightning fast on a single lap, great qualifiers in general. Yet when the lights go green, neither one seems to be able to keep their wits or position. (Unless, as mentioned, everything is just perfect and they run away at the front.)

Add to that the fact that both are tentative passers and you have mid pack results.

It was up to Morbidelli and Mir this year to remind us of how passing should be done in the premier class.

Bern1 said:

It is amazing to me that indeed Vinales and Fabio seem to be so much alike. Lightning fast on a single lap, great qualifiers in general. Yet when the lights go green, neither one seems to be able to keep their wits or position. (Unless, as mentioned, everything is just perfect and they run away at the front.)

Add to that the fact that both are tentative passers and you have mid pack results.

It was up to Morbidelli and Mir this year to remind us of how passing should be done in the premier class.

Click to expand...

But aren't we ignoring the elephant in the room? i.e., that they're both riding the same bike???? VR himself has been inconsistent but then it's not the Yamaha that he's riding as well, is it? He's an over the hiller now and his inconsistency and poor performances are expected.

IMO, FQ is young and needs greater maturity to deal with a difficult bike after a great first year and already the great expectations that come with already being promoted to the factory squad.

I think that it's quite clear that the 2020 Yamaha has been difficult to dial into a particular circuit with the new Michelin tyre construction. The riders/crews couldn't figure it out and seemed to manage when conditions were as they're accustomed to. The strange conditions made a good setup elusive for them, it seemed.

Vinales has been complaining about the consistency of the Yamaha since he joined the team and things have just been getting worse. VR has been doing the same... but again, his opinion isn't really taken seriously these days since it's clearly him and not the bike.

It is possible I am overlooking the elephant in the room. I know some here have talked about the tires and their seeming incompatibility with the 2020 factory Yamaha. I really don’t know anything about racing tires but it seems to me if everybody gets the same tires, the tires themselves can’t really explain the differences in the performance between Petronas and the factory team. It could come down to continued ineptness in the factory Yamaha team as mentioned by JPS.

Historically, vr has not been stellar at bike set up and development and even less so now that he is an over the hiller. So for this year that leaves Vinales and Fabio. It could be that neither one of them is really any good at communicating with the engineers or that if they are, the engineers should be fired.

Considering the recent past at Yamaha factory, I think the odds are good that the 2020 bike represents a significant departure from a «Lorenzo style» bike to things that the Jarvis driven team wanted to try. This would also explain not giving JL significant seat time when he was the test pilot early in the year and firing him at the end of the season.

In any case, the factory results are ..... Especially when considered in light of the 2019 bike results. I agree that Lin Jarvis should be fired. As others have mentioned, his crappy treatment of Lorenzo started the slide. I’ve disliked him since then on a personal level. He caved in to vr and look where that got him. Off with his head!

Morbidelli was riding the 2019 bike while FQ was running the 2020 bike, same as the factory riders. If MV, FQ and VR are unable to get consistent performance out of the same bike, something is up with the bike. FQ much preferred the 2019 bike which he rode last year. I personally have no doubt he'd have been doing the same or better than Franco if he were still riding that 2019 bike. Franco now seems like the hero on the same bike that FQ did so well riding, while FQ on the 2020 bike seems like the mistaken choice for the factory seat.

Got it. We’ll see next year if they get it sorted.

Deleted
It was a toilet brush modelled on a political personality.
Would have upset some even if it summed up the year a bit for others.