Massimo Meregalli tells us that the Iwata house changed the way they work and began to rely on Luca Marmorini's expertise at the beginning of February this year
Yamaha boss Massimo Meregalli took advantage of MotoGP's passage through Germany to confirm the alliance with Luca Marmorini, former head of Ferrari engines in Formula 1. According to the manager, the partnership will begin in early 2022.
The 60-year-old engineer had two stints with Ferrari in Formula 1, where he also worked as head of engines. His career at Maranello began in the 1990s, but was interrupted by a move to Toyota. Marmorini returned to the Italian squad in 2009 and stayed there until 2014.
The collaboration with Yamaha, however, will not be the ex-Ferrari's first in MotoGP. The Italian has already worked as a consultant for Aprilia, including on the development of the current RS-GP engine. Marmorini was recruited to Noale by Massimo Rivola, who also came from the Italian team.
Ten days ago, the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported the alliance, now confirmed by Meregalli.
"I can confirm that we have started a multi-year collaboration with Luca," Meregalli told the MotoGP website. "We started earlier this year, at the beginning of February," he revealed.
"We are trying to use his experience, his previous exerience that started ina F1 with Ferrari, then Toyota and more recently Aprilia," he pointed out. "In our view, it is somehow a sign that Yamaha is changing the way they work, also using external engineering," he pondered.
Traditionally, Yamaha has always relied more on the expertise of Japanese employees, but now the house of Iwata has chosen to draw on the expertise of Europeans, with a different kind of knowledge in the engine area to try to give the YZR-M1 the power it needs.
This change was vital to ensure the permanence of Fabio Quartararo, who has renewed until 2024, even though he has not been able to test anything of the new bike.
"As you know, we can't let him prove, test or see anything [of Yamaha's future engine development]," Maio said. "He simply believes in Yamaha," he closed.