Yamaha's Struggle To Fill Its Satellite Seats

Calum Gill 14:23 11/08/2021

Against what - with no context - you would expect, Yamaha find themselves embedded in a struggle to fill its satellite MotoGP team's two seats.

The retirement of Valentino Rossi, coupled with Franco Morbidelli's promotion to the factory team, to replace the outgoing Maverick Viñales, has left the Petronas Yamaha SRT team with two empty seats for 2022. Despite having what is considered to be a rookie-friendly bike in the form of the M1, Yamaha have struggled to lure names to ride for them for next year.

Two of the top names mentioned currently race in the World Superbike championship, one of which being title contender Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. Already a Yamaha rider, exceptionally fast and talented, young enough to be groomed into a future star and coming from a region of the world with a huge untapped marketing potential, the Turkish rider was thought to be the ideal fit - until he told Petronas he was more interested in staying in WorldSBK.

Similarly, there was also interest in American WorldSBK rider Garrett Gerloff, who actually has experience riding the team’s MotoGP machine after replacing the injured Morbidelli last month at the Assen round of the series in something of an audition for the role. But he too has since elected to remain in the production bike series, signing an extension to his Yamaha contract for another year.

In addition to all that, you have the Raul Fernández fiasco. Yamaha tried hard to sign him for the coming year only to see its chances stolen away by some aggressive contractual fights with KTM which, recognising the young Spanish’s star potential, was no doubt not only keen to retain his services but to make sure rivals didn’t benefit from them.

The reality for Yamaha though is that this problem has come about due to timing - in the most part - rather than Petronas Yamaha SRT becoming an unappealing option.

The satellite team did not head into this season thinking it would need an all-new lineup for the following campaign. Morbidelli's departure only came about due to Viñales, and as the year began there was optimism that the move to a satellite team might revitalise Rossi and prolong his career, rather than underlining that it’s time to go. And in the time when Yamaha wasn’t expecting to need them, the biggest names in Moto2 were set on moves that will take them into MotoGP for next year, and that doesn’t leave much in the way of big name talent for Yamaha to try and snap up.

Styrian Grand Prix Moto2 winner Marco Bezzecchi is the biggest name still to be confirmed in a MotoGP seat for next year, but despite Petronas Yamaha showing an interest it’s highly unlikely we’ll see him leaving his current VR46 team as it expands to a two-bike set-up in the premier class. The second Ducati there is built for ‘Bezz’, and sending him instead to Yamaha would leave Rossi’s team in an even trickier spot when it comes to finding a hot young talent to join Luca Marini next year than Petronas is in now. Elsewhere, Remy Gardner - son of 1987 500cc champion Wayne - will partner Fernández at Tech3 next year, as Fabio Di Giannantonio, who sits fifth in the Moto2 standings, will join the newly-formed Gresini Ducati team.

If approaches are not made to riders linked with the team, such as Augusto Fernández, Xavi Vierge, Marcel Schrötter, Jake Dixon, and Joe Roberts, Yamaha may be forced to think outside the box. It’s got a hotshot Moto3 rider who has really matured this year in the shape of Darryn Binder. Already believed to have signed a Moto2 deal with the team for next year, he is arguably in good shape to make the big leap up to the premier class. If none of those can work, then Yamaha may be forced to try and pick up a recently released rider, or one that doesn't currently have a seat for 2022. Iker Lecuona comes under this category, as he and Tech3 teammate Danilo Petrucci were kicked to the kerb by KTM to make room for Fernández and Gardner.

What Yamaha choose to do with the satellite team, we will have to wait and see.

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