“Bautista is having a fantastic season, only a few top riders are able to move up to WorldSBK and be successful from the start”, recognize Andrea Dosoli. « Congratulations to him and his team. It won't be easy to beat him, but we will try until the last race of the season because we firmly believe that our drivers and our teams have the potential to win.”
“We don't participate in WorldSBK to develop racing bikes, that's what manufacturers do in MotoGP. Yamaha participates in WorldSBK to promote motorcycles designed and developed according to the needs of the market and our customers. This is what WorldSBK has always been about in the past. At least in the short term, we will not offer a €40 road car. Maybe with Dorna and the FIM we should consider the difference in homologation price as an additional parameter to balance performance.”
Sore point: why did Marco Melandri collapse after the podium in Australia?
“What Marco and the Yamaha GRT team did at Phillip Island was something special. Marco has a lot of experience, but finishing on the podium in the first round of the season, racing with a new bike and for a team making their debut in WorldSBK was a goal to be proud of and for which they deserved our Congratulations. Marco was also very fast in Thailand, but his race was compromised by instability problems in the straight, especially in the second part of the race.
Why did this happen?
“The solution to this problem has been the focus of Marco and the team's attention, but it has proven difficult, not least because he is the only one of the four Yamaha riders to suffer from this particular phenomenon. As they focused on this issue, they encountered other difficulties that prevented Marco from repeating the Phillip Island performance. We are confident that the team, with our support, will soon be able to provide Marco with what she needs to return to the top group.”
Marco says Yamaha needs to intervene. Right now.
“In addition to the instability problem, Marco is looking for improvement on corner entry, where he needs better front feel. Once this confidence is regained, he will be able to fight for the podium again.”
Among the four drivers, who indicates the development path to follow?
« Having four fast riders is a great opportunity for Yamaha. Everyone has their own riding style and setup needs. Two of them are from motorcycles prototypes (Melandri and Cortese, editor’s note), this which makes them a little more sensitive to changes in settings, while the other two (van der Mark and Lowes, editor’s note.) are more accustomed to adapting to the limits imposed by production motorcycles. This is a good balance, as it allows us to incorporate the sometimes different feedback from all four riders into our development program, which will improve the overall performance of the bike for everyone, including new riders like Loris Baz, who will use a Yamaha R1 for Ten Kate Racing from Jerez.”
Is it true that to introduce evolutions, they must have them all together?
“As for updates during the season, when production capacity allows, we prefer to offer them to all drivers at the same time. When this is not possible, we will give priority to the reference team (i.e. van der Mark and Lowes, editor’s note.) ».
Are you satisfied with the results of the first quarter of the World Championship?
" Without no doubt. We are currently third and fourth in the championship and all four drivers are in the top eight. We saw a clear improvement in our race times, from six to twelve seconds, and we stood on the podium with three different drivers. This shows that the Yamaha R1 is a competitive package for riders with different experience levels and riding styles. This is important as WorldSBK is at the pinnacle of our rider development programme, which begins with the bLU cRU project in WorldSSP300 and provides young talent with a clear pathway within the Yamaha Racing structure that can take them to WorldSBK.”
Do supported teams benefit from the same technical treatment as official drivers?
“What has clearly emerged this season is that the Yamaha R1 is definitely a competitive package for supported teams. The supported team, GRT Yamaha, has achieved excellent results so far, including the highlight of Melandri's podium finish in Australia. This is confirmed by the fact that from Jerez we will have a fifth R1 on the grid.”
The contract with the official team, led by the British company Crescent, is about to expire…
“We all believe that continuity is a key factor in motorsport. We are therefore convinced that Crescent will also be our partner in 2020.”
In 2020, will you have two or three teams on the track?
“As a manufacturer we have a responsibility and commitment to the championship in which we compete. For this reason, we hope to be able to support any professional team wishing to enter the championship with the Yamaha R1. This would improve the championship, which would have benefits for everyone: having more competitive bikes on the grid and giving new teams the opportunity to strengthen their line-up with experienced riders from other championships or with young riders coming to light. in the intermediate category.
How are tasks distributed between Yamaha and the teams?
“Our philosophy is that the team focuses on racing operations, while the manufacturer is responsible for the development of the motorcycle. With this model, I believe it is possible to support more teams, with proper planning and sustainable delivery times.”
