Yamaha have been working with a second team in the Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing since 1977, but from 2023 this is unlikely to happen. After the close of the current season the RNF will leave the YZF-M1 in a corner to start working with Aprilia machinery, and without a second team for next season Yamaha will be dependent solely on its factory team.
Of all the satellite structures currently competing in MotoGP, only one is more likely to move to Yamaha: VR46. Valentino Rossi’s history with Yamaha has moved generations and an entire sport where Rossi has been its greatest representative for over a decade. However, Valentino Rossi’s team has a contract with Ducati that runs until the end of 2024.
Asked by Speedweek if Ducati is worried about possibly being without the Italian satellite team, Luigi Dall’Igna was not worried about such a possibility considering the results achieved by Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini.
‘At the moment we have a contract with the VR46 team and we are quite happy with the cooperation we have with them. We feel the VR46 team is quite happy with the current results. But you never know… It will be unusual even for me not to see a private Yamaha team in the field in 2023,’ replied the Ducati Corse General Manager.