Yamaha 2015 WSB wildcard plans as yet unknown

With an all-new Yamaha R1 and R1M in its stable for 2015 the Yamaha Road Racing arm of the reorganised Yamaha Europe racing effort features a whole portfolio of strong entries in domestic and World Endurance racing categories. There will be Yamaha R1s in the WSB paddock, however, under the care of the French MRS Yamaha squad – but they will be competing in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class.

A recent ‘all-out’ test session at Alcarras in Spain for the main R1 teams from all over Europe appeared to indicate that as expected the R1 is nothing less than a potential top level WSB entry.

There are still no public plans to reassert a full factory Yamaha WSB team in 2016, however, despite many expectations from race fans – with Yamaha repeatedly indicating that all decisions about seeing Yamahas in WSB 2016 are still to be made.

According to former works WSB Team Manager and current Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Project Manager Andrea Dosoli there are no plans yet for any WSB wildcard rides from national or World Endurance teams in 2015, as he has received no requests for support to help make WSB wildcard appearances.

Dosoli explained the reasoning behind adopting the non-WSB strategy this year and reiterated that no decision had been made on any kind of 2016 WSB return for Yamaha.

“I must stress that nothing has been decided yet, but for sure there are a lot of expectations that this will happen,” said Dosoli. “First we would like to see how things are going in 2015. The 2015 season is not started yet, which makes it pretty tough! Let’s see how the bike runs at a national level and then we can decide.”

The current HQ for Yamaha’s race operations is in Germany, with the hugely experienced Markus Eschenbacher in charge of the technical side, and Dosoli splitting his time between Germany and Yamaha’s European headquarters in the Netherlands.