The Yamaha Factory Team has officially revealed its 2012 racing livery and they’ve stayed with their handsome corporate blue and white livery and there’s barely a smudge of orange that indicates oil sponsor Eneos corporate color, but the main sponsor’s name is well in sight.

Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies will debute the new livery on their YZR-M1s during tomorrow’s last pre-season test at Jerez de la Frontera, where the two riders will try to put a dent into Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa’s super fast Honda’s.

More pics and video interviews with Lorenzo, Spies and Lin Jarvis after the jump.

Continue reading: Yamaha Factory 2012 livery and interviews (w/videos)

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Casey Stoner may have left Jorge Lorenzo adrift by almost six tenths of second, but the Mallorcan rider admitted that at this stage of testing chasing lap times is not that important, even though the Yamaha rider admitted was satisfied that he improved on his best record at this track and the fact that the new Bridgestone tires give a lot more confidence.

Jorge Lorenzo:

“I’m really, really satisfied, I have improved on my best record here in Sepang. We tried a lot of things; some have been a lot better, especially one major improvement. We also know where we have to improve in the future. The electronics are not perfect yet, we still need to make it smoother but the bike has so much potential we are very optimistic. The Yamaha engineers have worked really hard so they have done a good job. I made my best time today at midday which is the hardest time with the conditions so it was pretty good. Let’s see what we can do when we come back.”

Ben Spies completed only sixteen laps today, but they were more than enough for the “lean and mean” American to leave Sepang in a happy mood.

“It’s been a good test, we’ve got a lot of things accomplished, we’re definitely moving in the right direction with my bike. I tried the Yamaha test rider’s bike today which had a slightly different set up to make a fair comparison with mine. I made a small mistake, losing the front but that’s testing; it can happen when you’re working out the good and bad! All in all it’s been great and I’m really happy and looking forward to coming back and seeing what’s new,” said Spies.

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After losing title sponsor Fiat last year, Yamaha Racing Team had relied on Yamaha Indonesian and Malaysian petroleum giant Petronas to partially fund their racing effort, now Yamaha and Petronas have jointly announced that this sponsorship will be ending this year, as the three-year agreement has reached its ‘natural conclusion.’

This is another big blow to the team, who in 2010 not only won the championship title with Jorge Lorenzo and the constructors title, but couldn’t find a replacement for Fiat in 2011 and now they’re losing Petronas. The majority of the racing costs will now squarely on the shoulders of the Japanese manufacturer and with global economy expected to worsen in 2012 (especially in Europe), Yamaha may find itself in big trouble financing not only their MotoGP team, but also what they will be able to offer Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies or other top riders when contract renewals start next season.

Press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Yamaha loses Petronas as sponsor

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It isn’t exactly new news, but now at least it’s official. Valentino Rossi’s team manager Davide Brivio is leaving Yamaha after nineteen years with the company and will be substituted by Massimo “Maio” Meregalli, as everyone was expecting he would.

Meregalli will be joining the Yamaha Factory MotoGP Team in the role of Team Director (a brand new title?) and will work together with Team Manager Wilco Zeelenberg to form an experienced and unified (does that mean no wall and the end of two separate teams?) management team for 2011 and beyond.

Brivio is going to turn manager like Carlo Pernat, but has confirmed that he hasn’t made any deals with Valentino Rossi (Brivio brought Rossi to Yamaha) to follow him to Ducati in the near future, but hopes to still collaborate with his former rider and his company VR/46.

We’re also expecting that Daniele Romagnoli, Jorge Lorenzo’s former team manager in 2009, will be returning to the factory team in MotoGP after spending a stint with Poncharal’s Moto2 Tech3 team as Raffaele de Rosa’s crew chief, but we’ll find out if we’re right when Yamaha announces their team organisation on Monday November 8th at Valencia.

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