Yamaha has announced the departure of Franco Morbidelli and arrival of Alex Rins at its MotoGP team at season’s end.
Morbidelli stepped up from SRT midway through the 2021 season but has been a disappointment at the factory team and his contract has not been renewed.
His replacement, Rins, sought refuge this season at satellite Honda squad LCR under a two-year deal after Suzuki shuttered its MotoGP programme.
However, he reportedly had a clause in his contract enabling him to leave early if he landed a ride at a factory team, and hence the shift to Monster Energy Yamaha.
“We are delighted that Alex is joining the Yamaha line-up, and we warmly welcome him to the Yamaha MotoGP group,” said Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director, Lin Jarvis.
“We expect Alex to be a great asset. He has vast experience as a MotoGP rider and is known to be a natural talent and a multi-time MotoGP class race winner.
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“He already has experience with two other MotoGP manufacturers and has ridden bikes with similar characteristics to the YZR-M1, which should help him adapt quickly to our bike.
“His win in COTA earlier this year underlines his speed, hunger, and determination to succeed.
“Alex has been away from the MotoGP paddock for a while due to the injury he sustained at Mugello, but we are confident that he should be fully recovered and up to speed for the 2024 season.
“We are really looking forward to working with him and believe that he will collaborate well with Fabio and enhance the total performance of the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team.”
The ‘similar characteristics’ remark is presumably a reference to the fact that Yamaha is now the sole manufacturer fielding motorcycles with inline engines, as opposed to a V4 configuration, after Suzuki’s exit.
Morbidelli has ridden Yamahas for all but one year of his premier class career, but will be saddling up on another marque if he is to stay in MotoGP in 2024.
On the Italian, Jarvis commented, “First and foremost, I want to thank Franky for his hard work and dedication ever since he started with the Factory Team and also long before that when he was a Satellite rider for Yamaha.
“The Yamaha and Morbidelli partnership led to some great results, including an outstanding vice-champion [runner-up] title in 2020.
“It‘s a shame that the last two years didn‘t play out the way we both wanted and hoped for. We discussed the possibilities to continue our partnership, but ultimately we decided that 2024 would be a moment to make a change, both for Yamaha and for Franky.
“The team will proceed to fully support Franky in every way we can to close out our time spent together in the best possible way.”
The 2023 MotoGP season resumes after its longer summer break at Silverstone this weekend.
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