MotoGP: Will The New Yamaha Line-up Work?

Last week was a busy week for Yamaha Factory Racing, firstly they announced Maverick Vinales would stay with the team until 2022. Then they announced that Fabio Quartararo would join him and that Valentino Rossi would leave the factory team a make a decision about 2021 by the middle of the year, however, if he continues he will have full factory support in the SRT Petronas Team.

If that wasn’t enough, they announced Jorge Lorenzo as their new European Test Team rider. Yes, it really has been as mad as it sounds, so in short, Yamaha has thrown down a massive gauntlet of intent for 2021 and beyond.

Let’s begin with Maverick Vinales extending his stay at the Iwata Factory when he joined at the end of 2016 at the Valencia test he immediately topped the timesheets which continued through all the 2017 pre-season testing.  He won his first race for Yamaha, and his second and again in Le Mans, so surely he was going to be a dominant force? No. from then on it was a steady decline for the Spaniard, 2018 was again a difficult year with only one win. It was only the tail end of 2019 where Vinales was consistently fighting for podiums.

So here we are in 2020 and not even a wheel had turned before it was announced that Maverick would stay at the team, was it a good choice for both parties? In short yes, Yamaha albeit a little slow in a straight line, is still one of the sweetest handling bikes to ride on the grid. As for Vinales I truly believe he is one of the best riders on the grid, and given the right tools, he can fight Marc Marquez to the very last round. If Yamaha can help him get a better feeling on a full fuel load I think Vinales could throw a surprise this season.

The prospect I’m most excited about is Fabio Quartararo, let’s all be honest he really threw Yamaha a lifeline in 2019, he was consistently at the front of the field fighting with Marc Marquez, and probably the only man to give Marquez a run for his money in the second half the season. The signing of Quartararo I think shows just how serious Yamaha is about the future. They have replaced the most popular man in the sport, with fresh, young blood and arguably the most wanted man by teams in the last few years.

Jorge Lorenzo is the most interesting signing by Yamaha, this shows just how serious Yamaha is about getting back to the top. Jorge Lorenzo spent the majority of his career on the M1 with all three of his MotoGP world titles coming at Yamaha. Rumors are already floating around the paddock that Yamaha has submitted a wildcard application with IRTA for the Catalan Grand Prix in June, this is believed to be for Jorge Lorenzo.

The question on everyone’s lips, is Valentino Rossi still relevant? The Doctor had a torrid 2019 struggling to buy a podium for much of the season. We all now know Valentino Rossi will not be on a Factory Yamaha in 2021, but what we do know is IF he decides to continue he will get a full factory Yamaha M1 with a team of full factory engineers. If I was Yamaha I wouldn’t be risking investing all of this just so some bloke can plod around, Yamaha wouldn’t put that much investment into Rossi if his feedback wasn’t valued, plus on his day I still believe he could win a race or two. And if the first Sepang test is anything to go by then Yamaha and Valentino Rossi could be one for a fantastic year.

To sum up I think had Yamaha aloud Fabio Quartararo to be snapped up by another factory it would have been a detrimental mistake. Quartararo Has already shown what he can do on brand new machinery utterly dominating on the first test on the 2020 YZR-M1, could we witness a Championship won in a satellite team in 2020?