Yamaha has thrown vital assets at its MotoGP challenge in an try and get again to profitable methods, with the whole lot from poaching away the highest technical employees of different producers to increasing its variety of bikes subsequent yr.
It appears that evidently the subsequent a part of the challenge set for a revamp within the coming months is its take a look at staff, with a number of rumours circulating by means of the Silverstone paddock ultimately weekend’s British Grand Prix suggesting that reinforcements are coming alongside present take a look at rider Cal Crutchlow.
MotoGP race winner Crutchlow was snapped up by Yamaha following his retirement from full-time competitors on the finish of the 2020 season, taking on from a shortlived stint by a number of world champion Jorge Lorenzo that lasted just a few months in the course of the COVID pandemic.
Since then, Crutchlow has largely led Yamaha’s growth staff single-handedly, no less than till issues from hand surgical procedure earlier this yr largely sidelined him.
To date he is missed out on two scheduled wildcard race appearances, at Mugello and final weekend at his residence race within the UK, and it’s not but clear when the 38-year-old will return to motion.
To date, that doesn’t appear to have had a major influence on Yamaha’s testing programme, thanks largely to its new-for-2024 concession standing which means it been in a position to take a look at with its regular race riders, even when poor climate has every so often meant Fabio Quartararo and team-mate Alex Rins spent much less time than anticipated engaged on upgrades.
However, with loads of R&D within the pipeline for 2025 and with Pramac switching to its bikes for subsequent season, Yamaha is now shifting to safe extra take a look at riders alongside Crutchlow, who’s believed to be below contract till the tip of 2026. That final yr in 2026 can be essential, with MotoGP introducing new 850cc machines for 2027.
Each of the names linked to the testing staff have been in MotoGP motion final weekend at Silverstone – with Yamaha’s targets for the position believed to be a pair of previous Moto2 champions in Yamaha World Superbike racer Remy Gardner and present Tech3 GasGas MotoGP rider Augusto Fernandez.
Fernandez is seventeenth within the MotoGP standings – the identical place he ended his rookie yr in final season – however faces a tough combat for a brand new race seat owing to Tech3 signing British Grand Prix winner Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales as an all-new line-up for 2025.
Fernandez admitted completely to The Race that the concept of changing into a take a look at rider for Yamaha is an attention-grabbing one, even when he’s nonetheless bought to totally contemplate his choices with racing in Superbikes additionally being a attainable avenue of alternative for him.
“Each choices are actual,” he instructed The Race.
“Each are on the desk, and we have to maintain negotiating. We have now to think about [being] a tester, as a result of I wish to be again racing sooner or later, and in superbike there are a couple of good choices.”
Requested the place his present desire lay, Fernandez replied: “We have to go just a little bit ahead with the contracts”.
Gardner, who accomplished a full MotoGP season in 2021 on the Tech3 staff earlier than shifting to WSBK, has in Crutchlow’s absence made a MotoGP return, first changing the injured Rins ultimately month’s German Grand Prix earlier than returning to motion in Britain initially as Crutchlow’s wildcard alternative earlier than a contemporary Rins damage meant he moved to his seat.
He hasn’t disillusioned in both look, scoring strong race finishes regardless of an apparent lack of latest MotoGP expertise and the challenges of leaping forwards and backwards from Michelin to Pirelli tyres in between his two sequence.
Nonetheless, simply beginning to discover his type in World Superbikes after a sluggish transition and now a daily podium risk, the Australian says he isn’t able to accept a take a look at rider position, believing he’s nonetheless bought extra world championships in him.
“I don’t suppose each issues are going to be attainable,” Gardner defined of the prospect of each racing superbikes and testing in MotoGP.
“They’d form of be capturing themselves within the foot, as a result of it’s a very totally different form of bike.
“With time I may in all probability do exactly as nicely, however going from one weekend to a different isn’t one of the best. I’d somewhat give attention to one single championship, as a result of at Donington it took laps to recollect the right way to experience the superbike once more and I struggled there.
“I’m a 26-year-old younger boy with a hearth in my stomach. I had my first podium in practically two years a couple of months in the past, and I need extra. I bought fourth in Most and I used to be intestine wrenched.
“I’m hungry for it. I like podiums, I like racing, I like combating, and I feel I can combat for a championship sooner or later like I as soon as did. I’m a racer.”
So Fernandez is perhaps the almost certainly possibility at the moment as Gardner seems comfortable to stay the place he’s on the GRT satellite tv for pc Yamaha in WSBK, for now no less than.
