End of the road for factory Yamaha WSB squad

Any chance of Yamaha continuing its factory World Superbike team beyond the end of the 2011 season have ended.

MCN has learned that team and staff have been informed that the operation will close after the final race of the year at Portimao next month. Yamaha Europe bosses have been working hard for months to secure a new backer to bank roll the proven team and despite up to 50% of the budget being found they do not have enough money to continue running the squad at the same high level.

Rumours have already begun that Yamaha will make the bikes available to buy for a private team to use in 2012. This rumour is in stark contrast to Yamaha’s original stance to only compete in WSB if the project included key members of existing Yamaha staff with a budget for ongoing R&D.