IN
THE
WIND
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YAMAHA INTRODUCES WORLD TEAMS
A
multi-discipline preseason launch
of Yamaha's official racing teams,
from WorldSBK to MXGP, took place
last week at the racing headquarters in
Gerno di Lesmo, near Monza, Italy.
The WorldSBK focus was the rela-
tively youthful lineup of Alex Lowes and
Michael van der Mark on the heavily
revised YZF-R1. With sponsorship from
Pata and Rizla, the final paintwork and
image was unveiled.
Taking into consideration all of Ya-
maha's WorldSBK paddock presences,
there will be a total of 12 Yamaha official
riders in '17, across several classes. And a further
seven will compete in the colors of "Racing Blue" in
the FIM Endurance World Championship.
For the WorldSSP class Federico Caricasulo
and Lucas Mahias presented their all-new YZF-R6
machinery. STK1000 riders Florian Marino and
Roberto Tamburini will take the YZF-R1 into a new
adventure.
Another all-new venture for Yamaha—and the
whole WorldSBK paddock—is the FIM Supersport
300 World Championship. Six young bLU cRU
riders Robert Schotman, Enzo De La Vega, Kimi
Patova, Renzo Ferreira, Mkyta Kalinin and Alfonso
Coppola, will be the official phalanx of runners. All
on the YZF-R3. Integral to their bLU cRU status,
they will compete for a place on an official R6 Ya-
maha in the WorldSSP ESS Championship in 2018.
On the motocross side, Yamaha revealed the
factory-backed YZ450Fs that Romain Febvre and
Jeremy Van Horebeek will be campaigning in the
2017 MXGP World Championship.
Gordon Richie
2017 Yamaha WorldSBK Team 2017 Yamaha MXGP Team
