Yamaha has officially announced the arrival of Cal Crutchlow as a tester in 2021. Beginning with the shakedown scheduled for February 14-16 in Sepang, Malaysia, Crutchlow will ride the YZR-M1. He will also take part in the official IRTA tests and other private Yamaha tests. with the aim of helping Yamaha engineers in the MotoGP development program.
Crutchlow’s 10-year experience in MotoGP riding for three different manufacturers makes him the ideal rider for the job, Yamaha said.
A wildcard appearance is possible if deemed reasonable for the testing schedule and Crutchlow has also confirmed his availability as a back-up in the unfortunate event one of the Yamaha riders could be forced to miss a Grand Prix.
The Brit won the 2009 Supersport World Championship with Yamaha. The following year he moved up to the Superbike World Championship and took ten podiums, including three wins, and finished fifth overall. This gave him the opportunity to make his MotoGP debut in 2011 with then Yamaha satellite team Tech3.
Yamaha wanted to sincerely thank Jorge Lorenzo for his availability, support and understanding this year, which has been affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. Although external circumstances prevented this partnership from realizing each other’s goals for 2020, the respect between the two sides remains unchanged. Yamaha wishes Jorge all the best for his future.
Lin Jarvis commented: “Well, first of all I want to say ‘Welcome back’ to Cal. I still remember Cal’s first visit to YMR many years ago as the newly crowned World Supersport Champion and I remember him expressing his desire to move up and move up to MotoGP in the future. After making his first move to Superbikes he spent three seasons with us on the Monster Energy Yamaha Tech3 team before gaining a further seven years of experience with two of our main rivals. That wealth of experience, coupled with Cal’s honest, no-nonsense approach, will certainly serve us well as we strive to improve our YZR-M1 bikes with a full program of testing next year.”
“Of course we had planned and hoped for a strong program with Jorge this year. Unfortunately, our Factory Test Team soon had to put their plans on hold as the Covid-19 pandemic began and continued to impact 2020 from March. It is unfortunate that we were unable to complete our testing program and achieve our goals. We wish Jorge all the best in his future endeavors and thank him for his long association with Yamaha.”