After a significant competitive decline in recent years, Honda and Yamaha are starting the MotoGP season with the highest level of development concessions. The new tiered system was introduced for 2024, aiming to help level the playing field by allowing the two Japanese manufacturers to overcome the disadvantage they faced post-pandemic.
Randy de Puniet told paddock-gp.com that the question is how much Honda and Yamaha will be able to take advantage of this opportunity: ‘I anticipate a good year. We look forward to seeing what will happen with Yamaha and Honda’s concessions: will they benefit from it? In any case, they are doing everything possible to return to the top level. At one point, Aprilia, KTM, and even Ducati were granted these concessions for a long time, so it was necessary to find a solution for these bikes to get back in the fight, at least for podiums. Will they be able to do it?’.
The Frenchman acknowledged the efforts of both manufacturers, believing that in theory, they can return to competitiveness: ‘In any case, they are doing their best, and if they fail, it means that in terms of development and ideas, they are behind compared to the European manufacturers since Aprilia managed to do something, and so did KTM. So, there’s no reason Japanese manufacturers can’t succeed’.