In recent years, things have accelerated regarding the driver market, to the point that, sometimes, signings are made in a few hours...
We saw it at the start of the year with the renewal of Maverick Vinales' contract announced at the Qatar Grand Prix: the future of drivers is sometimes a question of speed of response time. On the drivers' side, of course, but also sometimes on the teams' side, and this is what Lin Jarvis reveals in an interview with Motorsprint: Yamaha missed the return of Jorge Lorenzo to its fold due to a question of timing...
Indeed, the name “Por Fuera” was the first to be associated with the Yamaha-Petronas project, but the boss of the MotoGP program for the Iwata firm confesses that at that time, everything was not yet ready. .
Too bad for those who dreamed of seeing this Lorenzo once again express the finesse of his riding on the M1…
There were rumors about Lorenzo's return before Honda formed a dream team with Jorge and Marc Marquez: they preceded you by stealing the spotlight?
Lynn Jarvis : “No, our star is the official team. On the other hand, the satellite team is something we wanted to put in place when Tech 3 decided to leave us and go to KTM. We looked for a credible solution, but we reasoned on the structure, and the pilots came second. If you had asked me
“Does Yamaha want Lorenzo to be a satellite team rider? », The answer would have been clear:
" no ", this was not part of our plans.
I was convinced that he would stay at Ducati, even if it was not an easy solution. And then I thought he would go to Suzuki instead of Andrea Iannone; it would have made sense for him and Suzuki. The possibility of getting him back as a satellite team rider emerged at the last minute, when it became clear that Joan Mir would go to Suzuki, closing the door on Jorge. At that time, Yamaha seemed the only possible option, because everyone thought that Honda-Repsol would stay with Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.
Would this have been an interesting option?
“Sure, but we didn’t have the team yet. So no one lost the limelight: without a team, there was no limelight.”
Have you spoken with Lorenzo's representatives?
" Once. I was contacted by Albert Valera, his agent, and it was relevant.”
