Joined Oct 2006
3K Posts | 34+
Tar Heel State
Who knows what it actually means. The press release says Yamaha will continue supporting privateer efforts so maybe they are going to eliminate the racing department and sign contracts with privateer teams like SMR (Swan Yamaha) or GSE (Airwaves Yamaha). BSB is moving to Evo spec next season, and WSBK are adopting a single bike rule. WSBK could get a windfall of new competitors for 2012 which might makes this a great time for Yamaha to bail.
AFAIK, Maio Merrigali was like the Livio Suppo of Yamaha Italia. He has moved on to GP with Spies, and Yamaha Italia are running without major sponsorship. If Yamaha no longer have someone in WSBK to drum up sponsorship, they might as well turn the racing effort over to a private team who have sponsorship connections.
AFAIK, Maio Merrigali was like the Livio Suppo of Yamaha Italia. He has moved on to GP with Spies, and Yamaha Italia are running without major sponsorship. If Yamaha no longer have someone in WSBK to drum up sponsorship, they might as well turn the racing effort over to a private team who have sponsorship connections.
Is WSBK getting too close to MOTOGP? With the latest Silverstone race and very comparative times have the powers that be pulled the plug on the "second" in line.
I reckon its pretty good that 2 different kinds of bike construction can do the comparitively same times although I`d like to see the comparison between MGP and the new BSB Evo bikes next year...........
just opened my twitter acct and immediately saw melandri's tweet. really shocking seeing they're doing really good in the standings.
Someone was saying at silverstone last weekend how laverty may be a contender next year, guess maybe not as much as he thought!
This is disappointing, but hopefully they will offer some support to a privateer team (like Duc with Althea) rather than having no Yamaha presence at all.
Why is Yamaha leaving? I stole this from another forum (apologies to my Dutch friend for stealing his post):
I'm reading the 2010 annual report for Yamaha Motor worldwide at the moment.
In Europe Yamaha unit sales went from 410.000 units in 2007 to 227.000 units in 2010. A loss of 45%!
In America Yamaha unit sales went from 207.000 units in 2006 to 53.000 units in 2010. A loss of 75%!
And also in Japan they lost about 40% of the sales the last years.
Only in China and other-Asia it goes up year after year. But that is mostly small bikes to Chinese who don't care about motorcycle racing much. They went from about 3.000.000 units to 6.000.000 units the last years. That is the only reason why Yamaha has not gone completely down the drain yet. Also in other markets (Oceania, Africa and South-America sales are stable).
From those the total unit sales the best sellers are not the sportbikes but the scooters, light motorcycles and commuter bikes.
He also mentioned that an R1 in the Netherlands, with the associated taxes, currently sells for $27,000 when converted to US currency.
edit: oh, and Laverty should have no problem finding a seat next year. A fast rookie is a rare thing in a field whose winners are primarily comprised of GP exiles. If LCR runs 2 bikes I wouldn't be stunned to see Eugene take a step up (Lucio has been a great supporter and fan of Mr. Laverty).
I'm reading the 2010 annual report for Yamaha Motor worldwide at the moment.
In Europe Yamaha unit sales went from 410.000 units in 2007 to 227.000 units in 2010. A loss of 45%!
In America Yamaha unit sales went from 207.000 units in 2006 to 53.000 units in 2010. A loss of 75%!
And also in Japan they lost about 40% of the sales the last years.
Only in China and other-Asia it goes up year after year. But that is mostly small bikes to Chinese who don't care about motorcycle racing much. They went from about 3.000.000 units to 6.000.000 units the last years. That is the only reason why Yamaha has not gone completely down the drain yet. Also in other markets (Oceania, Africa and South-America sales are stable).
From those the total unit sales the best sellers are not the sportbikes but the scooters, light motorcycles and commuter bikes.
He also mentioned that an R1 in the Netherlands, with the associated taxes, currently sells for $27,000 when converted to US currency.
edit: oh, and Laverty should have no problem finding a seat next year. A fast rookie is a rare thing in a field whose winners are primarily comprised of GP exiles. If LCR runs 2 bikes I wouldn't be stunned to see Eugene take a step up (Lucio has been a great supporter and fan of Mr. Laverty).
