Jorge Lorenzo has just revealed through his Facebook page the #1 he’ll be using this year on his Yamaha M1.

The design chosen is a combination his initials that form #1 and a star that symbolizes his first MotoGP championship title.

“Today I can reveal my No 1,” said Jorge Lorenzo. “I am very proud because you have to work very hard to have the option to wear it. I have been lucky with my design because the No 1 works really well with my JL initials, maybe with different letters it would have been difficult to make it look right, I hope my fans will like it! I won’t forget my No 99 this season, it will be there somewhere on my leathers because No 99 is in my heart. It was a difficult choice to change my number but I have earned the right for this unique opportunity to wear it.”

Source | motogp.com

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Current 2010 MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo has apparently asked for improvement to the Yamaha M1 engine, or things will be very difficult for the team next year. According to Valentino Rossi’s crew chief, Jeremy Burgess, departing with Rossi for Ducati, the M1 won’t be competitive next year without some significant changes.

According to what Lorenzo has said to Yamaha, the biggest update that needs to be made to the M1 is the acceleration, followed by rear tyre grip. Burgess says overall horsepower and acceleration needs to be improved in what will mark the last season of 800cc bikes for MotoGP, before they move to 1000cc from 2012.

In light of that, it will be interesting to see what Jorge Lorenzo and Yamaha can come up with in the coming year. Despite impressive performances from Lorenzo all year, Honda and Ducati were often hot on the heels of the Yamaha rider. With the departure of Valentino Rossi it will also be interesting to see whether the Yamaha team will be hurt by a lack of development expertise from its riders. Then there’s also Ben Spies to be reckoned with, so we’re expecting an interesting 2011 with the hope that the status quo might be shaken up a little.

Source | MCN

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Earlier this year Dani Pedrosa gave us a review of all five Honda’s he’s rode in his MotoGP career, and now Yamaha has Valentino Rossi doing the same thing with the Yamaha YZR-M1’s he’s had.

Rossi take us through his seasons with the Japanese manufacturer from 2004 to 2010, and give us some great insight on the strength and weaknesses of each bike, that with his switch to Ducati next week, ends an important seven year love story, even with it’s ups and downs, between the two.

Rossi’s a captivating narrator, even with his somewhat stilted English, but we expect that you’ll enjoy the video.

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As previously anticpated, Cal Crutchlow was at Yamaha’s Fukuori track in Japan to get his first taste of the M1 in a private two day test session ahead of next month’s official end of season testing in Valencia.

Crutchlow will be replacing Ben Spies in the Yamaha Tech3 outfit next season, was clearly impressed by the electronics and the carbon brakes of the M1.

“The M1 felt a lot smaller than my Yamaha R1 superbike,” he said. “I actually found the positioning more comfortable than the WSB machine. There is a lot of power but it feels very useable, it felt very different to a production based machine in terms of its delivery. In the wet we used the normal steel brakes but when it started to dry I had a chance to try the carbon ones which were cool, I managed to get quite comfortable with them. I found the chassis very stiff, it was really easy to change direction and the electronics were really different, even more advanced than the high level I’m used to in Superbike! It was a shame the weather wasn’t great so I wasn’t able to push to the bike’s full potential, I’m really looking forward to the Valencia test so I can get back on it and give it a proper work out!”

The video is Cal Crutchlow’s personal review of his year in World Superbikes.

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If Valentino Rossi decides to skip the last two races of the season to undergo the much needed surgery on his shoulder, newly signed Yamaha Tech3 rider Cal Crutchlow could be called in for the Estoril and Valencia races.

Crutchlow opted for a private testing session on the Yamaha M1 in Japan instead of taking part at the final round at Valencia; but Yamaha believes that Rossi will miss the last two races has put the British rider on pre-alert and Crutchlow has confirmed that he’ll be ready to ride.

However Crutchlow won’t be riding Rossi’s Yamaha, but theTech3 bike, the honour of riding the official factory bike would fall to Ben Spies, if having now partecipated in 13 races he should no longer runs afoul of the demential rookie rule.

Source | motosprint.it

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When Yamaha announced that Cal Crutchlow would be moving up from World Superbikes to MotoGP next season to join Herve Poncharal’s Tech3 team, we sort of wondered if the British rider would take part in the final MotoGP race of the season at Valencia, just like his predecessor, Ben Spies.

Spies took advantage of his wildcard status to get a head start on getting to know the M1, adding three extra days on the Yamaha ahead of the post season official test, which definitely was a very smart move (he finished 7th in the race) with testing slashed to the bare minimum.

However Cal Crutchlow has decided that he prefers two private tests on the M1 in Japan, than competing in the final MotoGP round of the season:

“It kind of came down to the choice of doing two tests in Japan or racing at Valencia. While it would be good to get a race under my belt, the reasons are the same as to why I turned down the ride earlier in the year when Valentino got injured. I’d be turning up to ride a bike I’ve never even sat on before with Bridgestone tyres and carbon brakes. For me a private test is the best way to get your first ride on a new bike.”

Source | mcn.com

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This is how Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha M1 ended up after the Misano GP, when a group of over enthusiastic and idiotic fans literally ripped off that fantastic gyrcoscopic onboard state-of -the art camera from his bike that has given us such great footage on the lean angles and even the seat of his M1 had to be sent out to be patched up.

We can’t even begin to condone a group of his fans booing Jorge Lorenzo on the podium and chanting Vale’s name with the flags flying at half mast for Shoya Tomizawa, nor do we appreciate this kind of destructive behaviour.

Source | alexbriggs@twitter

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When you’re a champion expectations are high, and sometimes unreasonably so as demonstrated over the weekend at the Indianapolis MotoGP. With Valentino Rossi’s performance after the free practice sessions described as a ‘debacle’ and then variously criticised during the race before a respectable fourth place, you’d think the world had suddenly forgotten what Rossi’s season has been so far.

After a serious injury that nearly saw him out for most of his last season with Yamaha, Rossi’s early return (perhaps because it is his last season) has been considered nothing short of a heroic miracle. A predictable announcement of his move to Ducati was only spiced up by his own hand written goodbye Yamaha letter, and otherwise mired in the usual PR treatment. The announcement followed a dramatic crash and re-entry to racing but it seems we’re intent on underestimating the stress a champion might feel and overestimating his ability to live up to our idolising.

When Rossi got his fourth place, some of the negative commentary died down, perhaps finally indicating that some of the hype surrounding the rider and his announcement to move to Ducati is subsiding. As David Emmett writes, MotoGP races are proving to be about chasing perfection, and Rossi is a good example of where you can arrive on being consistently high class. His performance over the weekend shows that firstly, he does make mistakes, and then secondly, he still knows how to fight. And has every intention of riding the rest of his season with Yamaha to the best of his ability. Rossi himself was far more realistic about his performance, as the rider quotes reveal. He says:

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi: lacklustre or misunderstanding a champion?

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The Fiat Yamaha team unrevealed their one off paint job for their two M1’s for this weekend’s Laguna Seca GP and now we’ve got some close-up shots of the livery with fan photos.

If your one of those thousands of fans who sent their pic to be stickered on Valentino Rossi’s or Jorge Lorenzo’s bikes check out the gallery and see if you can find yourself.

Continue reading: Find Your Face on Rossi's and Lorenzo's M1s

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Celebrating 80 years of the Assen TT includes an appearance by Giacomo Agostini with his 1975 bike, together with Jorge Lorenzo and a special livery with the number one designed for the occasion. Tomorrow, Agostini will lap the MotoGP Assen track with his original bike and while he just sat on the Yamaha M1 today, he has previously expressed a desire to try it. In fact it seems that he will complete a couple of laps with the M1, going from the OW23 with 120hp to the 240hp of the M1.

Present at the unveiling of the historic bike were Giacomo Agostini, Jorge Lorenzo fresh from qualifying in the pole position, Yamaha Racing president Shigeto Kitagawa and Ferry Brouwer from Yamaha Classic Racing. Agostini says: “Tomorrow I will have the chance to ride the “past” and the “present;” the first and the latest world champion bikes. My OW23 was like a bicycle with 120bhp, but used to get power at 6000rpm…whilst the M1 has 240bhp!” See our live pics in the gallery below.

Agostini and Lorenzo with 1975 OW23 and M1

Continue reading: Live pics from Assen: Giacomo Agostini and Jorge Lorenzo from 1975 to M1 in 2010

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I’ve already talked about how Valentino Rossi commands the general affection of an entire nation and it’s hard to underestimate the impact his absence is having on the 2010 MotoGP. No wonder there are rumours about a Rossi return at Laguna Seca - wishful thinking more than anything. When we checked out Lorenzo’s M1 in the Yamaha box at the MotoGP Assen, we also took a closer look at Rossi’s M1 and the stickers he enjoys decorating his bike with.

The fact that Valentino Rossi is not around only makes this umpteenth example of the strength of his personality even more potent. Is there a sense of the sacred in standing in the pre-race quiet this close to Valentino’s M1? Not quite, but there would be if I were a total Rossi nut. After the ‘be back soon’ t-shirt, I realise that while Rossi’s absence is felt amongst the whole team, there is an idea that he’s still around, playing his old antics and being one of the guys.

I had the medical men in Silverstone tell me how “flat” things were without Rossi, I had his driver talk of how much the team misses him and another team member from Fiat Yamaha went so far as to say that Lorenzo couldn’t hold a candle to their beloved Rossi: “Jorge’s a great guy, but Rossi - he’s like one of us.”

I’m continually realising how tough it must be for Lorenzo to be constantly compared to his other, more affable and charismatic teammate. Not only is Rossi a champion, he’s also a widely and very well-loved one. That’s not a feat every sports star manages to achieve. See Valentino’s M1 motorcycle stickers in the gallery below, including a fake insurance and automobile club registration he wanted to put on his bike.

Continue reading: Live with Rossi's M1 and his stickers: the Fiat Yamaha team without the Doctor

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On taking our live pics of Lorenzo’s M1 yesterday, we also got a few shots of Rossi’s bike (coming up) which is set up whether he’s there or not, as well as a tiny glimpse more of cover than bike, of another two Yamaha M1’s in the garage. One of them is the bike Rossi crashed with, which has been fixed since the accident. With repaired fairing and parts, it’s currently just a chassis missing its engine.

The other M1 under the sheet is a shadowy, mysterious thing and I was told that unless I already had an idea of what it was, my ‘tour guide’ wasn’t going to be the one to tell me. In fact, his exact words were “It’s not fun if you know all the surprises at once.” I deterred, but the fact remains I still don’t know what’s under there. At today’s free practice at the MotoGP Assen, there was talk of new Fiat Yamaha livery, so my bets are there. Start your guessing now….

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