Yamaha would welcome Eugene Laverty into MotoGP

One of Yamaha’s senior MotoGP bosses has said he would have no objections to the Tech 3 Yamaha squad selecting Eugene Laverty for its 2012 MotoGP world championship line-up.

Laverty is a leading candidate for a place alongside Cal Crutchlow in 2012 after he was left without a ride next season following the shock withdrawal of Yamaha’s factory effort in World Superbikes.

The Irish rider faces stiff competition from within the MotoGP paddock, with Andrea Iannone, Alvaro Bautista, Randy de Puniet and Bradley Smith all linked to the Tech 3 ride.

But Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis, who met Laverty during the recent Brno MotoGP round, said if Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal nominated the former 250GP rider, then he would happily support the move.

Jarvis told MCN: “I met Eugene and his manager in Brno and explained that riders are finally the responsibility of Herve although we work in collaboration together.
We share ideas because we are interested in Tech 3 bringing riders with potential for the future. We brought in Ben (Spies) and placed him with Tech 3 and he did a great job, so we like Tech 3 to fulfil that function for us and Herve has the same mindset.

“I told Eugene it is too early right now because we have other considerations including Colin (Edwards) and other riders. We didn’t expect Eugene to suddenly come on the market. He’s always been a candidate, but because he’s been with our WSB team we didn’t want to disturb that and we felt he should stay in WSB one more year. But would Yamaha accept Eugene? Absolutely. He’s a good guy with good potential and I’ve only heard positive things about Eugene, so if Herve nominates him then Yamaha will accept.”