It is blowing cold and hot that the Yamaha factory approaches its WSBK meeting in Misano this weekend, in a season largely dominated by Alvaro Bautista on his Ducati. But in addition to this influence, the firm with tuning forks had to accept the letting go of its star Toprak Razgatlioglu to whom the maximum possible had apparently been offered. Two factors which motivated a speech suggesting that nothing lasts forever in the paddock… While still concluding that the game is still worth the effort.
In the press conferences before the start of hostilities in Misano, Yamaha stood out for elements of language which did not hide disappointment and doubts, but without crossing the Rubicon all the same. The disappointment is Paul Denning, former Team Manager of the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK team which developed it and of course concerns the departure at the end of this year of Toprak Razgatlioglu : " the news was disappointing…Yamaha and, of course, the team, but above all Yamaha, with the contract they offered Toprak, made a huge effort to keep him. He helped us to a world championship, but we also took him to a world championship. The scary thing about Toprak is that he still has room for improvement in certain aspects of his work. ". Then he finishes: “ I can't tell you anything about Andrea Locatelli's teammate next year ».
A topic for the future and this part came back to Andrea Dosoli, Yamaha Europe's man on the ground. On who will take the place of the Turk, the idea of Franco Morbidelli from MotoGP is touched on: “ I'm sure he would enjoy the SBK, considering he's already driven the R1 at Sepang in an endurance race. At SBK, Morbidelli could certainly fight for the top and this paddock would suit his character well ". For a little, one would think that the milestones had been laid.
« A championship completely loses interest if there is no balance of performance » signals Yamaha
But what follows is more impactful on the paddock and should attract the attention of promoter Dorna. In the columns of GP One, we can thus read from the Italian official: “ a championship completely loses interest if there is no balance of performance » he blurted out before insisting: “ we need to see a fight on track again, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to invest in this championship. We must find a means by which, regardless of the business philosophies of different manufacturers, motorcycles can compete on the track ».
But it’s not just that… His thinking also includes MotoGP, put into the equation as follows: “ we face the same safety problem in SBK as in MotoGP. On certain circuits the runoff zones are not wide enough for the speeds reached and this is a big problem. MotoGP takes place on tracks with A approval by the FIM, SBK on tracks with A and B approval, endurance A, B and C, we need to understand how to make racing safer and less efficient ».
Andrea Dosoli However, he ends his presentation with this positive note: “ we will certainly not stop working. WSBK, right now, for investments and returns, is the right place to achieve two objectives. The first is to develop the drivers and the other is to develop technologies for the market. It's no secret that everything is going well and there is no reason to reduce our investments, on the contrary we want to increase them ". However, the conditions are set by a factory which will lose its leading driver at the end of 2023.
