Lin Jarvis admits Kenny Roberts Jr stopped Yamaha from winning one MotoGP title ‘we should have’

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Lin Jarvis oversaw huge success in MotoGP during his 26-year tenure as the managing director of Yamaha but admits Kenny Roberts Jr stopped them from winning one title.

The Briton is a fundamental part of the history of Yamaha in the premier class and Jarvis was crucial to the Japanese brand’s resurrection when the 500cc championship became MotoGP in the 2000s. But after orchestrating a wealth of titles, Jarvis left Yamaha at the end of 2024.

Jarvis affirmed his decision to step down as the managing director of Yamaha last April and has now brought to a close his time with the factory MotoGP project he established in 1999. Yamaha were just a manufacturer of 500cc bikes before Jarvis brought the brand to the grid.

Lin Jarvis feels Kenny Roberts Jr denied Yamaha and Max Biaggi the 500cc title in 2000

Two of Jarvis’ parting gifts for Yamaha were signing Fabio Quartararo to a new two-year deal and tempting Pramac to axe their satellite Ducati bikes to become the Japanese brand’s de-facto second factory team in 2025. Quartararo also won Yamaha’s eighth riders title in 2021.

Valentino Rossi, who Jarvis was crucial to signing from Honda, won four of Yamaha’s titles in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. Also, Jorge Lorenzo secured the MotoGP riders’ crown in 2010, 2012 and 2015 – with his first and third titles also being two of Yamaha’s five Triple Crowns.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Yamaha from the MotoGP team’s riders to hierarchy

But Jarvis thinks Yamaha ‘should have’ also won the riders’ championship in 2000 instead of Roberts Jr lifting the American’s only premier class title riding for Suzuki. Roberts Jr sealed the 2000 500cc title on 258 points to Honda’s Rossi (209) and Yamaha’s Max Biaggi (170).

“When we switched to four-stroke, Honda were all dominant,” Jarvis has told Moto Matters. “I think nobody was a match for Honda at that stage.

“We missed a championship that we should have won in 2000 when I think Kenny Roberts Jr took the championship. That was really our miss to not be able to achieve.”

Kenny Roberts Jr had the consistency and results to beat Max Biaggi to the 2000 500cc title

Roberts Jr won the 2000 500cc title in just his second season with Suzuki after missing out in 1999 by 47 points to Honda’s Alex Criville. It was to be the highest moment of Roberts Jr’s premier class career, too, as the American never finished any season higher than in P6 again.

Yet taking the title in 2000 not only saw Roberts Jr deny Yamaha a crown that Jarvis believes his Japanese brand should have secured but also deny Biaggi what could have been his only title. The Italian never secured a riders’ championship during his eight years in the top class.

But while Jarvis feels Yamaha should have won the 2000 500cc riders’ championship, Biaggi did not produce the results they and he needed to usurp Roberts Jr and Suzuki. The 13-time Grand Prix winner won two of the 16 races in 2000 as eight-time winner Roberts Jr won four.

Consistency was also key for Roberts Jr, who stood on nine podiums that term compared to the just four rostrums that Biaggi reached. The Honda rider further only failed to finish one race after retiring from the Dutch TT, whereas Biaggi retired four times in the first five races.