Pramac Racing has signed a deal with Yamaha to become a satellite team of the Iwata factory after spending two decades with Ducati.
Announced during this weekend's Dutch TT, the announcement confirms Pramac will be what Yamaha is calling its "second Factory Team," a role which sounds much the same as that it has held with Ducati. With the Bologna machinery, Pramac won the teams' title in MotoGP last year, becoming the first independent team to do so, and is currently leading the Riders' Championship with Jorge Martin.
The riders for the Pramac Yamaha team remain unconfirmed, with Martin already signed to Aprilia from next year, and Franco Morbidelli having joined Pramac this year from Yamaha after a tough two-and-a-half seasons with the factory team until the end of 2023.
For Yamaha, the deal represents a return to four motorcycles on the grid after being with only two in both 2023 and 2024, following the departure of RNF (now Trackhouse Racing) to Aprilia at the end of 2022.
"These are busy times for Yamaha, both on track and behind the scenes," said Lin Jarvis, who has now helped negotiate a contract for Yamaha with both Fabio Quartararo and Pramac Racing in the final year of his role as Yamaha Racing Managing Director. "Yamaha Motor and Yamaha Motor Racing have made it no secret that they are putting all their effort into bike development," he continued.
"We now enter the next phase – one that we have been looking forward to for a long time: the arrival of a second Yamaha team.
"The new partnership with Prima Pramac Racing will take a different form than we have used in the past.
"Rather than a satellite team, with this new agreement Yamaha have put their trust in Pramac Racing, and we will be providing them with Factory bikes of the same specification used by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team.
"The targets are to accelerate bike development, which remains YMC and YMR's key priority in our quest to return to winning ways, as well as having four competitive riders in the MotoGP championship in two top-class teams.
"In addition to the MotoGP programme, our collaboration includes a future Moto2 project to provide a platform to groom future MotoGP riders. It is too early to give details about this programme right now as this will be developed in the months ahead.
"I would like to extend my personal appreciation and thanks to Paolo Campinoti, CEO of Pramac, and Gino Borsoi, Team Manager of Prima Pramac Racing, for their faith and trust in Yamaha. We have the greatest respect for their team, and we assure them of our full commitment to make this new partnership highly successful for many years to come."
