The Yamaha Racing Team competes at the highest level of motorcycle motorsport; Moto GP, with their riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, and their YZR-M1 motorcycle. With these riders and this bike, it is widely agreed that Yamaha will be hard to beat in the 2013 Moto GP season.
Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge Lorenzo is the lead rider at the Yamaha Racing Team squad and won the riders’ Moto GP world championship last year on the M1. Yamaha, however, lost the manufacturers’ title to Honda, who had a better spread of experience across their riders, and a very strong bike. But, this year, with two top riders and the very solid M1 motorcycle, it is expected that Yamaha will be the team to beat. Right next to Honda!
Lorenzo is still only 25 years old, yet he is a four-time world champion motorcycle racer; two in the premiere class of Moto GP and twice in the 250cc class; the old feeder class into Moto GP. On a good day, on a good bike, Lorenzo’s super-smooth style, precision and absolute refusal to make mistakes, makes him a truly formidable foe. He has been the world champion of his class in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012, and holds many records within the sport, and is already on his way to being one of the legends of the modern motorcycle racing era. Alongside his teammate, Valentino Rossi…
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi is arguably the greatest motorcycle racer of all time. He doesn’t hold as many world titles as the overall most successful racer even – Agostini – but he has won a ton of titles, has an incredible talent to squeeze the last drop of grip from a battling motorcycle, and possesses the kind of affinity with the fans that makes marketers simply ecstatic. He left Yamaha – his spiritual home – for a while, but now he’s back for 2013 and reunited with the Yamaha YZR-M1, a bike that he won four world championships on.
The 34-year-old Italian is the most famous motorcycle racer on the tracks today, and while, of course, at 34 years of age, he’ll most likely round out his incredible career with Yamaha, many believe the ol’ dog’s still got a couple of red-hot seasons left in him. Sure, he’s not as young as the young guns, but what he looses in pure attack, he makes up for with a feeling and affinity for a motorcycle that’s almost magical.
Yamaha YZR-M1
Yamaha YZR-M1
The Yamaha YZR-M1 is a work of prototype motorcycle art, and both Jorge and Valentino will be riding one of these blue and grey apex-hunters for the 2013 season. And while it may not be the purely fastest bike out there – the Honda and Ducati both have a hell of a lot of straight line squirt – the big Yam handles the bends like a liquid dream. Predictable handling, apex readiness and a smooth power delivery all come together to make the M1 an all-round formidable Moto GP foe, especially with Lorenzo and Rossi on board.
She’s got 1,000ccs in 4-cylinders across the aluminium frame, pushing about 240bhp to the rear wheel, and that’s about four times what you mum’s Fiesta has under the hood. It weighs 157kg (dry) in accordance with the Moto GP rules, and is entirely handmade as a prototype, just like F1 cars. No other Yamaha motorcycle (away from the Moto GP class) would stay with the M1 on any racetrack.
