Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces that its partnership with Franco Morbidelli will be discontinued at the end of 2023 when Morbidelli will move on to new racing challenges. Since Morbidelli joined Yamaha in 2019, the Italian achieved six podiums: three victories, one second, and two third places. He also claimed two pole positions and was MotoGP Vice World Champion in 2020. After a short break due to a knee injury during the 2021 season, Morbido made a comeback at the San Marino GP as part of the Yamaha Factory Racing Team. In total he contested 74 GPs as a Yamaha rider so far.
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Yamaha Motor Racing, and the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team are extremely grateful for Morbidelli‘s contributions, never-diminishing motivation, and his positive mindset. They look forward to sharing more memorable moments during the remaining 12 MotoGP rounds of 2023. Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. wishes Morbidelli the very best in his future racing endeavours and reconfirms Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team‘s full support for him for the remainder of the season to end their partnership on a high note.
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Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce the signing of Alex Rins. He will be joining Yamaha‘s factory team rider line-up for the 2024 MotoGP season alongside Fabio Quartararo. The vastly experienced Spaniard has many premier-class and lower-class race victories (6x MotoGP, 4x Moto2, 8x Moto3, 18 in total) and podiums (18x MotoGP, 17x Moto2, 23x Moto3, 58 in total) to his name. His vast experience and undeniable talent make him a fully qualified and welcome addition to the Yamaha rider line-up. Following Rins‘ leg injury sustained in the 2023 Italian GP Sprint, MotoGP fans the world over eagerly anticipate his return to action. He underwent two surgeries and is working hard on making a full recovery.
Lin Jarvis, managing director Yamaha MotoGP Team: “First and foremost, I want to thank Franky for his hard work and dedication ever since he started with the Factory Team and also long before that when he was a Satellite rider for Yamaha. The Yamaha and Morbidelli partnership led to some great results, including an outstanding vice-champion title in 2020. It‘s a shame that the last two years didn‘t play out the way we both wanted and hoped for. We discussed the possibilities to continue our partnership, but ultimately we decided that 2024 would be a moment to make a change, both for Yamaha and for Franky. The team will proceed to fully support Franky in every way we can to close out our time spent together in the best possible way.
“We are delighted that Alex is joining the Yamaha line-up, and we warmly welcome him to the Yamaha MotoGP group. We expect Alex to be a great asset. He has vast experience as a MotoGP rider and is known to be a natural talent and a multi-time MotoGP class race winner. He already has experience with two other MotoGP manufacturers and has ridden bikes with similar characteristics to the YZR-M1, which should help him adapt quickly to our bike. His win in COTA earlier this year underlines his speed, hunger, and determination to succeed. Alex has been away from the MotoGP paddock for a while due to the injury he sustained at Mugello, but we are confident that he should be fully recovered and up to speed for the 2024 season. We are really looking forward to working with him and believe that he will collaborate well with Fabio and enhance the total performance of the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team”.
