MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo offered Yamaha Test Role for 2020

Just over a month after Jorge Lorenzo announced his retirement from MotoGP it has been confirmed today that he has been offered a testing role with the Yamaha European Test Team that has been made vacant by Jonas Folger’s exit.

Jorge Lorenzo won all three of his MotoGP world titles in 2010, 2012 and 2015 onboard the Yamaha YZR-M1 machine sealing 44 wins and 39 poles for the Iwata factory, before jumping to the Factory Ducati Team for 2017 and 2018 securing 3 wins and 4 poles.

Some of Jorge Lorenzo’s most memorable moments for the Factory Yamaha Team was his rivalry with Valentino Rossi, in 2009 the pair went toe to toe in one of the best MotoGP races in history at the Catalan Grand Prix where Rossi won on the last lap with a last corner dive. 2009 was also famous for the “wall” being put up in the box as the pair did not want to share data with each other.

2010 saw Jorge Lorenzo take his maiden title in MotoGP holding on to the highest-scoring championship ever with 383 points, finishing on the podium in 16 out of 18 races and securing 9 wins, this record was beaten this year after 9 years when Marc Marquez took an incredible 18 podiums out of 19 races and finishing no lower than second all year and scoring 420 points and 12 wins.

In 2015, Lorenzo sewed up his third and final MotoGP title battling with team-mate Valentino Rossi for the championship that went right down to the wire in Valencia, and after the controversy in Sepang Rossi had to start from last on the grid, putting one hand on the championship trophy for Lorenzo. Amazingly Jorge Lorenzo remains the only man to have beaten Marc Marquez to a MotoGP title since Marquez joined the class in 2015.

Speaking to Austria’s Servus TV, the three time champion said;

“Of course, I’ll be back in the paddock, but I don’t know in which function yet.”

“We’re definitely working on it, maybe I can talk about it soon. I’ve travelled so much, 17 years of my life, always been in the same hotels, on the same tracks, in the same places, doing the same thing.” – Jorge Lorenzo

If Lorenzo accepts the testing role this could open the door to return to the Factory Yamaha squad for 2021?