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With testing for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship underway at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, it’s a chance to see what upgrades teams and manufacturers are bringing to make steps forward. Paul Denning, Team Principal at Pata Yamaha, explained how internal changes in the team were made following a difficult 2024 campaign, a test in November being beneficial for 2025 development and other changes that could feature on the Yamaha R1 machine as early as next week’s Portimao test.

2024 REVIEWED: limited success for Yamaha

Hopes were high for Yamaha heading into 2024 after signing Jonathan Rea from Kawasaki, but his one podium and teammate Andrea Locatelli's four – plus a pole at Assen for the #65 – were the team’s highlights from a challenging season. Yamaha slipped from second to fourth in the Manufacturers’ Championship but the Japanese brand, and Denning’s team, are aiming to turn their fortunes around in 2025 with some upgrades and changes to the team internally which include a new crew chief for Rea.

Discussing the feeling heading into 2025, and how Yamaha reacted to the challenges of last year, Denning said: “We’re coming into it with a lot of enthusiasm because we didn’t have a lot of success last year. We had some very competitive races and some podiums with ‘Loka’, but ’24 was a tough year compared to the high standards that Yamaha and the team and the riders set themselves. A big reaction from everybody involved in the project; Yamaha in terms of technical development, the riders in terms of their own preparations and, as a team, we’ve changed a few things around internally to create a different working atmosphere and to improve the current situation. It’s been a good, very short, few weeks since the end of the Jerez race. We had a very positive November test here at Jerez and looking forward to the new season and to taking a massive step forward.”

CRUCIAL NOVEMBER TEST: new swingarm introduced for 2025

Yamaha took part in a two-day test at Jerez in November where Rea worked with Uri Pallares as his crew chief for the first time, replacing Andrew Pitt, although the Rea-Pallares relationship extends a long way back from their time at the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK outfit. There was also a new swingarm tested by Locatelli which will be introduced to the R1 for 2025. Denning explained how that November test helped start the development path for this year.

Expanding on the November test and explaining the benefits of it for this test, Denning stated: “The first thing on Jonathan’s side is we changed the team around, with the new crew chief, which is always a risk because we had an extremely experienced and very capable guy in that position, but changing the dynamic is sometimes something that an athlete needs, and Jonathan felt he needed that. I have to say that it worked, from the evidence of those two days, really well. That was a big positive that we’ll obviously keep expanding forwards on. Technically, there was some stuff that ‘JR’ actually felt made a positive difference to performance which, maybe, during the year we introduced a lot of stuff and it felt different but not necessarily better. We’re able to take some steps forward which gave him confidence and he rode really well. There was some great stuff on JR’s side. On Locatelli’s side, he tested a new development swingarm that, again, was fortunate in that it gave a proper step forward in grip and performance. That’s been introduced for the new season. It was just a good basis in which to start the development path for the 2025 season.”

MORE TO COME: looking for “outright acceleration and performance” improvements

One area Yamaha have been looking to gain in is top speed, with Denning stating that there have been works on the electronics that were positive plus some potential new upgrades he hopes to try at Portimao to help ‘make the riders’ life just a little bit easier’, while also praising Yamaha’s work and investment to turn around their recent fortunes.

On future developments and more progress, the Team Principal added: “Electronics, we tested some stuff that was quite encouraging and had some good potential for the future. The engine was the ’24 motor at that point. Outright acceleration and performance is clearly an area, not so much for lap time but as a racing machine, that we need to improve on to make the riders’ life just a little bit easier. We’ve got some developments coming, hopefully in time for the Portimao test next week, at least as a shakedown. The work’s been fairly relentless and the investments in time, effort and, of course, money are significant to take a step forward and fingers crossed we’re going to be able to deliver that difference in performance very shortly.”

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