Marco Bezzecchi
Yamaha became the latest MotoGP manufacturer to reveal their 2025 bike on Friday morning. It was a rather spectacular ceremony beneath the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Yamaha were joined by Pramac, their new satellite team for the 2025 season. They’re looking to build on the promise they showed at the back end of a difficult year.
The Ducati, Aprilia and KTM teams have all unveiled their bikes already. But Yamaha decided to hold their launch in Malaysia to coincide with this weekend’s Shakedown.
2021 MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo will take to the track, along with the rest of the full-time riders. Yamaha enjoy this privilege because they occupy the bottom rank of the concessions system, along with Honda.
They were busy carrying out the launch commitments on Friday, so testing duties fell to Andrea Dovizioso. Yamaha raised eyebrows this week when they revealed that the Italian would be on their saddle.
Dovizioso last appeared in a premier-class race at the 2022 San Marino Grand Prix, riding a Yamaha bike for RNF. He finished his career with 15 wins and 62 podiums from just under 250 starts.
Augusto Fernandez will still fill Yamaha wildcard slots after Andrea Dovizioso arrival
At their launch, Yamaha confirmed that Dovizioso would join their testing team for 2025. They have a free pass to test at every Grand Prix circuit this year.
The former Ducati rider will join Augusto Fernandez and Cal Crutchlow on Yamaha’s books. However, Crutchlow is unlikely to ride a MotoGP bike again due to injury complications.
Team manager Maio Mergalli says they intend to use all six available wildcard slots this season to aid bike development. However, Fernandez is ‘expected’ to monopolise them, according to The Race.
The 27-year-old may be seen as a better option because he completed the full 2024 season at Tech3. Dovizioso rejected Yamaha’s wildcard offer for last year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Lin Jarvis is in disbelief over one Yamaha deal ahead of 2025
Yamaha are aligning with their MotoGP competitors this season by developing a V4 engine. They’re the last team still running an inline four following Suzuki’s departure.
That means their test programme will be more valuable than ever, and the concessions system may truly prove its worth. Dovizioso will effectively replace Crutchlow, assuming the Briton is indeed unable to participate.
The arrival of Pramac doubles their data-gathering potential. Yamaha didn’t have a factory team last year following the expulsion of RNF.
Former team boss Lin Jarvis has called Yamaha’s deal with Pramac ‘miraculous’. Last season, they won the MotoGP title with Jorge Martin on Ducati machinery.
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