Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. sign Multi-Year Partnership Agreement with Prima Pramac Racing

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. are pleased to announce that Prima Pramac Racing will be Yamaha’s ‘second Factory Team’ from 2025 onwards, while remaining an independently owned team. The multi-year programme foresees a close cooperation between the two parties which includes Yamaha providing same spec Factory YZR-M1 bikes, riders directly contracted by Yamaha, and MotoGP engineering staff contracted by Yamaha working together with Prima Pramac Racing team staff.

Iwata (Japan), 28th June 2024

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. are delighted to announce their multi-year agreement with Prima Pramac Racing which will see two extra Factory Yamaha YZR-M1s lined up on the MotoGP grid from 2025 onwards.

The new second Factory Yamaha team will remain independently owned and keep their base in Rugby (UK).

The 2025 Prima Pramac Racing rider line-up will be announced in due course.

By doubling Yamaha’s current presence on the MotoGP™ grid next year, Yamaha aim to make a strong statement of their intentions to return to winning ways in the near future.

LIN JARVIS

Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing

These are busy times for Yamaha, both on track and behind the scenes. Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (YMC) and Yamaha Motor Racing (YMR) have made it no secret that they are putting all their effort into bike development.

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.

More, from a press release issued by Ducati:

Pramac Racing and Ducati Corse to part ways at the end of the 2024 MotoGP season

Ducati Corse wants to thank Pramac Racing for their excellent work since 2005 as Ducati’s factory-supported MotoGP team.

In these 20 years of collaboration, Paolo Campinoti’s team has contributed to the sporting growth of Ducati and its riders in the premier class, achieving 8 victories, 55 podiums, and 20 pole positions. In addition, the Pramac Racing team won the Teams’ World Title in 2023 and, with its results, contributed to Ducati’s four Constructors’ World Titles in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Claudio Domenicali (Ducati CEO):

“I want to personally thank Paolo Campinoti for all the years we have worked together. We have achieved great results with passion and enthusiasm but, above all, in an atmosphere of great respect and collaboration. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a solution to extend this partnership further, but the esteem and friendship that bind us are totally intact and will continue over time. Best of luck for the future to Paolo and his team.”

Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager):

“I want to thank Paolo Campinoti and the Pramac Racing team for all the commitment, dedication, and great work we have done together in these 20 years of collaboration. Our relationship started in 2005, and we have achieved important milestones together. Pramac Racing was the first independent Ducati team to win a race in MotoGP and won the Teams’ World Title in 2023, as well as the Best Independent Team Title several times. We are sorry that we cannot continue together in the future. Now, however, we have to stay focused on the present: we will do our best to support Pramac Racing, Jorge Martín and Franco Morbidelli until the end so that we can achieve other important goals this season.”