Yamaha Motor Racing

Yamaha MotoGP Racing or Yamaha Factory Racing is the official Italian-Japanese factory team of Yamaha in MotoGP, currently competing as Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team.

History

The team was founded in 1999 following the retirement of Wayne Rainey, who had run a factory-supported team in the 500 cc class for the previous two years, with Kenny Roberts and Giacomo Agostini having run their own works supported teams before him.
The team was originally based in the Netherlands but was relocated in Italy in 2002.
File:2001 Yamaha YZR500.JPG|thumb|left|Yamaha YZR500 ridden by Max Biaggi in the season

The early years

and Carlos Checa raced for the team from 1999 to.
Biaggi achieved a total of 8 race wins in that period, first riding the Yamaha YZR500 and later the Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2002.
In, Checa was joined by Marco Melandri. The team had an average season with no podium finishes.

The VR46 era

For, Valentino Rossi joined Checa at the team. Rossi got 9 wins and won the championship.
Colin Edwards joined the team for, when Rossi once again won the championship, collecting 11 wins.
Rossi and Edwards stayed with the team for. Rossi earned 5 wins and finished 2nd in the championship.
For the season, both riders remained with the team riding the new 800cc Yamaha YZR-M1. Rossi had 4 wins and finished the season 3rd overall.
File:Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo 2009 Sachsenring.jpg|thumb|left|Valentino Rossi leading Jorge Lorenzo at the 2009 German Grand Prix

The Rossi-Lorenzo pair

For, Yamaha had a unique line-up with Rossi being joined in the team by Jorge Lorenzo. Although the pair were fighting for the title from different pit boxes, Yamaha operated as one team and not two separate entities.
The title was won dominantly by Rossi who won 9 of the 18 races and finished on the podium in every race except for two.
Even though this was the learning year for Lorenzo, he was able to cruise to victory at Estoril and finished 4th in the championship.
In, Yamaha dominated MotoGP with Rossi winning the title and Lorenzo finishing second.
The pair won 12 out of the 17 races, and Yamaha won the Constructors' Championship.
After seven years with Yamaha, Rossi left the team to compete with Ducati for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Rossi's second stint

He rejoined Yamaha again for the 2013 MotoGP season.

Titles after Rossi

They won the 2015 Championship with Jorge Lorenzo before going on a 6 year wait for their next world championship title with Fabio Quartararo.

The V4 engine era

Yamaha fielded a total of 5 bikes in the private test in Brno Circuit and one of them was the V4 engine tested by Andrea Dovizioso. This was the first time the Italian test rider had tested the new engine and underwent a fairly closed test on the circuit that had just been resurfaced on 1 and 2 July 2025. Dovi was not allowed to comment on his experience. In addition, it is not certain from the time records which bike the 39-year-old rider tested because all of them were recorded as Yamaha test bikes.
The V4 will make its full debut in 2026 with all 4 Yamaha bikes set to use the V4 Spec.

Grand Prix motorcycle results

MotoGP results

By rider

Year

Class

Team name

Bike

No.

Riders

Races

Wins

Podiums

Poles

F. laps

Points

Pos.

MotoGP

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP

Yamaha YZR-M1

MGP|2022|MotoGP