Present and future. The Superbike World Championship is approaching its final stages and on the eve of the Estoril round we shared a long chat with Andrea Dosoli. The head of SBK activity for Yamaha drew a picture of the situation of this 2024 while turning his gaze to the season to come.
For the tuning-fork manufacturer, it has certainly not been an easy season: on the one hand there are Rea's injuries, and on the other the downward spiral into which it has entered in the last few races. As if that were not enough, the competition has raised the bar significantly.
We talked about this and much more with the engineer soon to become head of Motorsport for Yamaha Europe.
"At the moment Yamaha is the most committed manufacturer in this paddock," he said, "more than 30 percent of the bikes are blue, and this confirms the effort of our group. We are constantly developing new models on the market, such as the R1 and the recent R9. To this we can also add the respective championships such as the Women's or the BluCrue, further confirming what our commitment is."
Andrea, we certainly do not question Yamaha's commitment. The problem, perhaps, is the direction that this SBK is taking and which Yamaha is suffering from.
"That is our concern. The moment you go back over the steps to 2012, where the grid had less than 20 riders and only with expensive factory bikes could you be competitive, in my opinion we are going down a road that SBK should not be going down. The fact is that we are levelling the performance upward, forcing manufacturers away from the factory model. This does not represent our vision."
What needs to be done then?
"Superbike must offer anyone the chance to be competitive by turning especially to the growth path of young riders as we are doing in Yamaha. From my point of view, I don't think anyone is happy to go in this direction, considering that in the next few years we will have to drastically reduce the performance of the bikes. We will continue to work and at the same time we are convinced that the Federation and the Organizer want to do the same, arriving at offering a platform that can allow everyone to be competitive."
Many argue that Yamaha has become the fifth force in the Championship....
"Just 12 months ago the Yamaha R1 saw more than one rider present on the podium. Personally, I am of the opinion that the bike has improved and at the beginning of the season we risked winning, plus the times are lower than in 2023. If I have to analyze the situation, I can say that until Most the trend was encouraging, but in the last 3 we struggled, entering a downward spiral also because of the absence of two riders. So I think it is necessary to do 360-degree reasoning, trying to understand what are the reasons for this. However, I believe that Yamaha's commitment in this paddock has never been as strong as it is now, considering that we are giving the opportunity at the international level to young riders to race at our expense."
Have you considered reviewing the distribution of resources and possibly incentivizing those in SBK?
"We absolutely will not make that mistake. I want to mention that this is why we ended the SBK project in 2011 despite the fact that we were super competitive. Our priority is to allow our customers to have fun and be competitive nationally and internationally with our bikes, without going down the current path that is being taken."
Let's talk about Rea. It has been a very troubled 2023 for him.
"The moment the rider who is supposed to make the difference is missing, it's a big internal problem, because the others are missing the benchmark. His was a really unfortunate season because he was improving on the bike and I think it's hard to make a judgment about this championship. It's a real shame because Rea was improving in a big way on the R1, in fact I expect a 2025 in crescendo with the goal of fighting for the podium."
How much does Yamaha miss Toprak?
"We are happy to see him fighting for the World Championship, as we invested in him by believing in his talent and winning a title with him. I think he is the best rider who has emerged from this paddock and he deserves this moment."
Among the market rumors there was also Iannone. How come the deal didn't go through?
"We like continuity and the goal was to continue with this set-up, in fact we went in this direction. We did all the due evaluation among the various possibilities, but in the end we moved in another direction."
What about the R9?
"You will see it in Jerez firsthand. It is an important project, which goes in the direction that the market is asking for, which is a less extreme bike than the R6, but one that will give great satisfaction to our customers for street use."
Andrea, to conclude: do you think we will see the V4 on the R1?
"I don't know Yamaha's future plans. Our R1 is an easy bike to handle and with exceptional character, in fact our fans like it. We are careful to evaluate different solutions."