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Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. (YME) has decided to withdraw their official Yamaha World Superbike Team at the end of the current season from the FIM Superbike World Championship.
This announcement follows a full strategic review of the Marketing Operations within Europe including all Motorsport activities and takes into account the continuing severe and rapidly changing Powered Two Wheeler market conditions throughout the region.
Due to this decision more resource and focus will now be used for direct “Customer“ activities to ultimately add more value to Yamaha ownership and increased Customer Satisfaction.
YME would like to express their sincere thanks and appreciation for the total commitment, support, and passion shown by the extremely professional and dedicated riders and team members both past and present throughout the many years of participation in the FIM Superbike World Championship. YME would also like to thank all the highly valued business partners and suppliers who have in-turn supported the team and in addition would like to thank Infront Motorsports, the FIM Superbike World Championship promoters. YME has chosen this timing of announcement to ensure that all existing obligations are correctly met, and to not limit any opportunities or future planning for all personnel involved.
Riders Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty are currently respectively 3rd and 4th in the overall 2011 FIM Superbike World Championship standings for riders with 4 rounds to go. YME and the team will continue to give its maximum efforts until the end of the existing season to try and regain the World Superbike title which Yamaha also won in 2009.
Yamaha will continue the availability of road racing kit parts, known as YEC Racing kit parts, for its R1 and R6 production models for private teams entering at all racing levels.


source :-(Motorcycle News UK | Motorbikes | MCN)

Noor

News approved

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Samarth 619

Why didn't they leave MotoGP? That could have saved some heavy money for other purposes.

They are leaving WSBK for direct customer activities and satisfaction, right? Get some 600's and 400's manufactured here in India, please Yamaha! That would be some customer satisfaction!

milancherian

It not just Yamaha.All the factory teams will leave MotoGP pretty soon. Its just a matter of time.

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princesirohi

the news says WSB and not MotoGp.

btw, i can't really understand the reason.

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Aniket_N

now that's surprising! but now as they have said,they should focus on customer demands much better..bring in the mid-weight champs!


cheers.

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BikerForLife

Does this not sounds exactly like what happened to Ducati? Are they planning a new superbike?

Wsbk is my favourite motorsport and Yamaha my favourite team. This is sad news indead

Samarth 619

Even sad is the fact that this won't mean new bikes.
Yamaha Europe boss: “WSB withdrawal will have no effect on new road bikes”

Yamaha’s decision to leave WSB will have “no effect whatsoever on the release of new bikes”, a senior company figure has claimed.

The race team – which was axed earlier this month with four meetings left in the season – was a victim of a series of financial challenges faced by the Japanese firm, including a 2009 operating loss of £1.4bn, the difficulties of finding effective sponsorship, and a 50% year-on-year decline of supersports sales in 2010/2011.

The troubles have led Yamaha insiders to claim that the next few years will lead to “consolidation” of the road range, not new development.

But Andrew Smith - Vice President of Yamaha Motor Europe’s Sales & Marketing Operations – says Yamaha’s plans for new road bikes will remain unchanged. Find a Yamaha motorcycle for sale. He told MCN: “There is no connection between the WSB withdrawal and the development of new road bikes.

"There is 00.00% connection, and the WSB decision will have no effect whatsoever on the release of new bikes.

“If you look at the numbers of new models introduced to the market over the past five years, Yamaha stands at least in the top three of manufacturers and probably at number one.

“The market remains very affected by model introductions. In the mature market we are selling to the enthusiast, whose reasons to buy can be substantially increased by a new product, or a product development. We recognise that. We need to bring in new products to stimulate our market.

"We need to bring in new products to help customers come back to Yamaha or to upgrade their current Yamaha.

“We are 54 years old as a company and ultimately we will survive by the new products that we bring to the market. As a manufacturer R&D is fundamental. The ongoing development of our products is essential for us to remain a major player. We have a number of projects ongoing from 50cc scooters up to large capacity motorcycles.

“Yes, in 2009 there were many stories about our losses of £1.5bn. But, there weren’t many stories about turning that loss into a very small profit in 2010. To go from one to the other was remarkable.

"We continued to run a WSB team throughout that period. We’re currently running a MotoGP team – with four bikes and riders – with no major sponsor. Our commitment to motorcycling and motorsport is without check.”

Recently released industry figures show a 58% decline in R6 sales compared to last year, and a 42% fall in R1 sales. Smith – while accepting the challenges – believes that Yamaha will remain dedicated to the supersports market. He said:

“Our sales of larger capacity machines are disappointing this year, when you consider the product line-up. The R6 has not changed for four years, and we’re now in the third year of the R1. We expected sales to be down and we increased our pricing accordingly.

"The overall supersport market is down 14% this year, and Yamaha is down 51%. We’re not alone; BMW is 35% down, Suzuki is 28% down. But, between 2008-2010 we’ve increased our market share annually to become the market leaders.

"Supersport remains an important part of our brand, from a brand image point of view, and from a development point of view, but it has been in continual decline for the past five years.

“In contrast, the 125cc sector is actually level with last year, as are the bikes in our On/Off range.”


Source: Yamaha Europe boss: ?WSB withdrawal will have no effect on new road bikes? - | Motorcycle News | Bike News | Motorbike Videos | MCN

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Vignesh vnktrmn

The rules for various classes in Gp's are really getting irritating.For moto2 engines have to be sanctioned by the organisers.For the future moto3 class ECU's will be provided by the organisers with only limited tweaking possible.Maybe after four to five years they will provide all teams with uniform bikes and teams can add stickers of their choice and sponsors that too the stickers should not be costlier than one dollar and radium and 3-d stickers not allowed!!

Vignesh vnktrmn

GP bikes should be like the honda rc166 or rc145's those were the real wild and truly unrestricted bikes.these rules in racing are making it more and more difficult for the companies to innovate and develop machines for the market hence it makes more sense for them to pull out of such events and invest those funds elsewhere.