Yamaha open to World Superbike return

Yamaha could be tempted back to World Superbikes if new owners Dorna introduce radical technical changes that will reduce costs and make the bikes more closely linked to a Superstock level of tuning.

The Japanese factory pulled its factory team out of WSB at the end of 201, but boss Lin Jarvis said it would be closely monitoring the changes Dorna will implement after the MotoGP rights owners took charge of World Superbikes last month.

Jarvis told MCN: “We are not participating in World Superbikes right now but that doesn’t mean to say in the future we won’t have interest. We were involved in almost every single racing discipline until last year when we pulled out of World Superbikes.

If the entry point is lower and more affordable then it will increase the chance of us returning to the series.  I think that production racing definitely has a place in the market and World Superbikes needs the technical level of the machinery reduced and if you do that then you can also bring MotoGP down to a more affordable level of participation while also keeping a good show. If that’s the result of Dorna’s new ideas then this can only be positive.”