You are here

Yamaha's long cold winter: 14 months without a win in MotoGP

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, will retire after the 2024 season. The Englishman looks back at a successful career - but his 25th and last MotoGP season at Yamaha could turn out to be his worst ever.

MotoGP: Yamaha's long cold winter: 14 months without a win in MotoGP

At the presentation of the new Yamaha in Jakarta in 2023, Lin Jarvis was not sparing with motivational slogans for Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli – his two remaining M1 riders in MotoGP after Razlan Razali's RNF squad defected to Aprilia for 2023. This meant that Yamaha did not have a customer team for the first time in the MotoGP four-stroke era which began in 2002.

“We will fight, we will go into battle, we will rise to the challenge,” Jarvis emphasized combatively last year before embarking on his 24th season at the helm of the Yamaha factory team in the premier class.

As a reminder, the team has been under the management of parent company Yamaha Motor in Japan since 1999. Jarvis has been in a leading position since the beginning, first in Amsterdam and now in Gerno di Lesmo in Italy. Previously, the team management for the factory entries in the premier class had been outsourced to the racing teams of Agostini, Roberts, Rainey and so on.

For the 2023 season, 21 Grands Prix were planned for the first time, ten of them outside Europe. The season began on March 26 and ran until the end of November. In addition, there was the new format with the sprint races on Saturday – half the distance, half the points. For the teams and riders, this meant that the number of races doubled. And the show on Saturday definitely became more attractive.


Yamaha lost the title fight to Ducati and Bagnaia in 2022 with Fabio Quartararo – and was hoping take revenge in 2023. This was the unequivocal goal of Takahiro Sumi, General Manager Motorsports Development Division at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

But the goal was missed by a long way: Quartararo finished the 2023 World Championship in an embarrassing 10th position – 295 points down on Pecco Bagnaia on the unbeatable Ducati Desmosedici.

In 2024 it went from bad to worse: Quartararo, who is valued to be a better rider than Marc Márquez (“He is just as fast as Marc but crashes a lot less”, two times World Champion Dieter Braun said) only qualified 15th at the Austrian GP and is holding a poor 14th place in the rankings after 11 out of 20 Grands Prix in 2024. He has already lost 226 points to Bagnaia.

Well, Yamaha had some below average seasons before. For example: The 2017-version of the M1 YZR Yamaha created headaches for the stars of the factory team. Honda and Repsol won all three world titles. But at least Yamaha clinched a total of four GP wins in 2017 wins with Rossi and Viñales. Four times both riders managed to get on the podium together in 2017 – and Yamaha celebrated it's 500th GP win across all categories.


The Movistar Yamaha team won all three World Championship titles (Riders, Constructor’s and Team World Championship) in 2015. In 2016, only the Team World Championship title was won because Dani Pedrosa weakened at Repsol Honda.

Yamaha has been involved in the FIM Motorcycle World Championship as a manufacturer since 1961. The current factory team has existed in this form since 1999, when Yamaha Factory Racing was created as a separate racing company based on the HRC model. In the meantime Ducati Corse, KTM Factory Racing and Aprilia Racing operate in a similar way. Previously, Yamaha had outsourced team management to private racing teams for years – Agostini, Roberts, Rainey and so on.

As far as the main sponsors are concerned, the Yamaha works team has a turbulent past in the premier class. For example, sponsor Fiat pulled out at the end of 2010, despite Lorenzo's title win, because Rossi moved to Ducati.

Incidentally, Yamaha also experienced some pretty disgraceful years in the MotoGP era. For example in 2003, when Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa failed to achieve a podium finish for the whole year. Checa finished seventh in the world championship, Melandri 15th.


When Formula one Engineer Luca Marmorini started to be responsible for the M1 engine development two and a half years ago and after Fabio Quartararo signed a new two years contract, Yamaha hoped for better results in 2024, also because of the reinforced “concession rules”.

But even the one of a kind talent “El Diablo” has not been able to perform miracles. Fabio’s last GP win is dated June 25th 2023 – which was 14 months ago. The longest losing streak in Yamaha MotoGP history.  

In the MotoGP era, the Yamaha factory team won eight rider titles thanks to Valentino Rossi (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009), Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012, 2015) and Fabio Quartararo in 2021. The Japanese manufacturer with the three crossed tuning forks logo won the last “Triple Crown” to date (Riders', Team and Constructors' Championships in one season) in 2015.

Winning all three MotoGP classifications again was the big goal for 2023. “That would be nice”, replied Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, when asked by GPOne.com before the season started in 2023 in Portugal. "However, it won't be easy against the European armada of eight Ducatis, two KTMs, two GASGAS and four Aprilias. We will make an effort.” But Quartararo and Rins are still struggling in 2024.

Yamaha has won the MotoGP Constructor’s World Championship only five times during the 23 years since the comeback of the four stroke bikes in the premier class.

But in 2020 the manufacturers’s title was only lost to Ducati because Yamaha got a 50 points penalty for using non-homologated valves at the Spanish GP in July when the season started late because of the Covid pandemic.

The Yamaha MotoGP factory rider line ups

2002: Carlos Checa, Max Biaggi
2003: Carlos Checa, Marco Melandri
2004: Valentino Rossi, Carlos Checa
2005: Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards
2006: Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards
2007: Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards
2008: Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo
2010: Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo
2011: Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies
2012: Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies
2013: Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi
2014: Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi
2015: Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi
2016: Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi
2017: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales
2018: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales
2019: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales
2020: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales
2021: Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales/Franco Morbidelli
2022: Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli
2023: Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli

The title sponsors of Yamaha Factory Racing

1999 to 2002: Marlboro
2003: Fortuna
2004 and 2005: Gauloises
2006: Camel
2007 to 2010: FIAT
2011 to 2013: Yamaha Factory Racing
2014 to 2018: Movistar
Since 2019: Monster

MotoGP success of Yamaha Factory since 2002

8 Riders World Championship titles
2004, 2005, 2008, 2009: Rossi
2010, 2012 und 2015: Lorenzo
2021: Quartararo

119 GP wins

5 Constructor’s World Championship titles 
(2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015)


56 wins Valentino Rossi 
(Welkom 2004, Mugello 2004, Barcelona 2004, Assen 2004, Donington 2004, Estoril 2004, Sepang 2004, Phillip Island 2004, Valencia 2004, Jerez 2005, Shanghai 2005, Le Mans 2005, Mugello 2005, Barcelona 2005, Assen 2005, Donington 2005, Sachsenring 2005, Brno 2005, Doha 2005, Phillip Island 2005, Doha 2006, Mugello 2006, Barcelona 2006, Sachsenring 2006, Sepang 2006, Jerez 2007, Mugello 2007, Assen 2007, Estoril 2007, Shanghai 2008, Le Mans 2008, Mugello 2008, Laguna Seca 2008, Brünn 2008, Misano 2008, Indianapolis 2008, Motegi 2008, Sepang 2008, Jerez 2009, Barcelona 2009, Assen 2009, Sachsenring 2009, Brno 2009, Misano 2009, Doha 2010, Sepang 2010, Assen 2013, Misano 2014, Phillip Island 2014, Doha 2015, Las Termas 2015, Assen 2015, Silverstone 2015, Jerez 2016, Barcelona 2016, Assen 2017).

44 wins Jorge Lorenzo

(Estoril 2008, Motegi 2009, Le Mans 2009, Indianapolis 2009, Estoril 2009, Jerez 2010, Le Mans 2010, Sachsenring 2010, Assen 2010, Barcelona 2010, Laguna Seca 2010, Brünn 2010, Estoril 2010, Valencia 2010, Jerez 2011, Mugello 2011, Misano 2011, Doha 2012, Le Mans 2012, Barcelona 2012, Silverstone 2012, Mugello 2012, Misano 2012, Doha 2013, Mugello 2013, Barcelona 2013, Silverstone 2013, Misano 2013, Phillip Island 2013, Motegi 2013, Valencia 2013, Aragón 2014, Motegi 2014, Jerez 2015, Le Mans 2015, Mugello 2015, Barcelona 2015, Brno 2015, Aragón 2015, Valencia 2015, Doha 2016, Le Mans 2016, Mugello 2016, Valencia 2016)

8 wins Fabio Quartararo 

(Doha-2 2021, Portimão-1 2021, Mugello 2021, Assen 2021, Silverstone 2021, Portimão 2022, Barcelona 2022, Sachsenring 2022)

8 wins Maverick Viñales
(Doha 2017, Las Termas 2017, Le Mans 2017, Phillip Island 2018, Assen 2019, Sepang 2019, Misano-2 2020, Doha-1 2021)

2 wins Max Biaggi 

(Brno 2002, Sepang 2002)

1 Ben Spies (Assen 2011)

Related articles

 
 
Privacy Policy