Yamaha’s revolution is not its decoration, it is its new bet to keep Quartararo

In a 26-minute video recorded at the Sepang circuit on day one and hosted by former driver and one of the championship’s commentators, Simon Crafar, the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory in a major campaign for Iwata where they must ‘woo’ their drivers with their new technical proposal for their M1, as both their star Fabio Quartararo and his new partner Alex Rins will finish the their contract at the end of the year, and also for the team to get on the Iwata train and become their new client team in 2025.

There is no revolution in its decoration, black and blue dominate its fairings and overalls, there is one in its organizational chart after recruiting the new technical director of MotoGP operations from Ducati, the Italian. Max Bartolini – first time a European engineer was in that position -, to integrate Japanese affairs Kazuhiro Masuda, who until now managed the test team and became the head of the project that focused more on Japan. Another European talent also joined the project, Marco Nicotra.

One of the most talented drivers in the championship Fabio Quartararo He received them in the gym of the hotel where he was staying and explained that “2023 is a tough season and this winter has been productive, I have trained more than ever and this is a motivating way to start. It will help the project to Work hard in the winter.”

“My main goal is to win again, the process will be short or long, but I want to achieve it with Yamaha. It is important to never skip steps, but I want to be a solid top-5 and from there to victory .My personal goal is to win the championship and all the races, but there is work to be done.

And because of the decoration, which has not changed, the 2021 MotoGP champion is practical: “Lor above all how fast it is, the decoration is always beautiful.” And about his new partner Àlex Rins, whom he has known “since I was 7 or 8 years old when I came to Spain to race, ” he hopes that he will be “a fast, he has done great races and had great victories and we expect a lot from him and his comments.

Alex Rinswho before being seriously injured in Mugello won in Austin with one of the lowest competition bikes on the grid, fulfilled the goal of being a factory rider again and wearing the colors of the history of the championship: “I am very ready and excited to start this new adventure, a dream come true, a team with many names and history in the past.

Regarding his serious injury to his right leg, which required several operations throughout 2023, he said that “I feel recovered and ready, the injury still affects walking or changes in time and pressure. I have lost a lot of bones and it takes time to recover but this winter I started to live a normal life and train normally, I rode the R1 in Almería and Cheste and I don’t feel too much pain and that’s important.”

Regarding the M1 version 2024 he says that “the first impressions were good, I am comfortable with the team, they seem to want to improve the bike and the results, the same dynamics that I want. I am ready to give all my experience and see if we can make it competitive again this Yamaha looks amazing.

Lin Jarvis, sports director of Yamaha Racingare hopeful about this campaign that is important for them and where they will enjoy technical concessions like their compatriots from Honda: “We have the possibility to do more things in the concessions, especially in the tests we can do the tests in more circuits, with the officials, we can change the engine design, and an additional aerodynamic package. That gives us the opportunity to work and it is in our hands to develop throughout the year. He moment of truth will come soon.”

Regarding the changes in the organizational chart: “they are changes that some started in the middle of last year, new blood and we changed the way of working with some key engineers from the paddock who joined the team.”

He warned that “maintaining our current drivers is very important and we will see what happens. In 2025 we will have a satellite team again and the first half will be a very important and very important campaign.”

Massimo ‘Maio’ Meregalliteam director, talks about “the shortest winter ever, but very productive in Japan and Italy and we prepared a lot of material for the first test, we improved the team structure with Max Bartollini and Alex Rins joined us.”

“All seasons are important, but after a difficult season it’s time to go back to where we were before. The riders’ contracts end this year and the satellite team is very important so we have to show that the this bike has potential.”