Yamaha hoping to remain dominant in 2009

Top Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis is confident the 2009 YZR-M1 will remain the dominant brand in MotoGP next season.

The Japanese factory had a phenomenal return to form last season by collecting a clean sweep of the major premier class prizes.

Valentino Rossi took the individual glory with nine victories on his way to a sixth world title, while his Fiat Yamaha squad won the coveted team award with the help of impressive Spanish rookie Jorge Lorenzo.

Yamaha also won the manufacturers title to take the triple crown back from Bologna rivals Ducati.

And Jarvis told MCN: “As a brand this year Yamaha proved itself to be the reference brand. By not only having Valentino win and dominate, but we had the triple crown with the team and manufacturer awards too. Our bike was clearly good with Michelin and Bridgestone and a multitude of riders, so we hope we can achieve a similar level of success next season.”

Jarvis also said it was apparent that Ducati was adopting a similar strategy to the Japanese factory in 2009.

Ducati will field five GP9 machines next season and Jarvis added: “Ducati is adopting a similar strategy next year where they want to supply more equal bikes to all their five riders. That’s also to re-establish the credibility of the Ducati brand, which has suffered a little bit this year by having a bike that only Casey (Stoner) could ride.

“I think it didn’t do many favours to the Ducati brand this year and they want to recover next year with all five riders being in front. We are all in MotoGP to prove the same point.”