Yamaha Racing has promised something new at Jerez since the start of the 2024 race weekend, but they will not present it at the Grand Prix race weekend because their test rider – Cal Cruthclow – is plotted for a wildcard in 3 other series. However, some of the latest updates to the Yamaha M1 were shown by Yamaha and immediately tested by their racers starting in the first hour of the Jerez test which took place the day after the 2024 Jerez MotoGP Grand Prix.
In general, what can be seen from the photos released by GPOne is the latest aero fairing update starting from the front cowl to the side fairing. On the front cowl, apart from the major update of the front cowl curve itself, you can see a change in the area of the ram air which is slightly wider, which indicates that Yamaha is trying to inject more air volume, which is suspected to be a requirement from the engine update which is alleged to have increased the performance of Luca’s Marmorini tunes.
The second thing is that the main aero winglet has changed. So it is larger and is divided into three blades of the main wing cross section where the three blades have different angles of inclination of the wing which leads to the function of each blade depending on the lateral inclination motorcycles.
As we know with the ride height device the condition of the lateral tilt Motorbikes can vary greatly from diving forward, in a normal position, to extreme jacking up due to the rear suspension slipping down. Well, the three wing blades with different angles of attack are said to have a role in providing downforce in three motorbike position situations due to changes that can be caused by this shape-shifter/right height adjuster.
Yamaha is also seen trying to use the most viral aerodynamic solution at the start of the 2024 season, namely a combination of a concav inflated ground effect fairing model with a tunnel diffusser downwash duct solution. .
If all that isn’t enough, Yamaha has also introduced a tunnel on the side fairing with the presence of an air channel ‘gutter’ to ensure that the air flow from the side pod is trapped to be channeled to the right path and does not mix with the air specifically to form ground effect downforce in the side fairing when the motorbike tilted.
At the end of the session, Fabio Quartararo commented on this update: “The new chassis we tested is completely different. In the past we tried something different, but [the changes were only] small, and now for me it’s a big change to feel what’s new in his motorbike.
“For us this is really the first step to see how well it performs, but now we have to do another test to see it clearly, and have some ideas about what we are doing on the bike.”
Later, he explained in more detail: “[with the chassis] We are looking for more performance in the corners, and we are trying to find it. I’ve seen a slight improvement on corner entry, but it’s not really present in the middle of the corner, it’s a small step.
“We will use some elements that we have tested today, because it is always better to test on different circuits, and for Le Mans we will use some pretty decent things. It will be interesting to see at three different circuits what my feelings are. Yes, especially since Le Mans and Mugello are very different with Jerez,”
