Speculation is apparently rife in the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) paddock that Yamaha is to scale down its efforts in 2010, leading to the possible abandonment of its title-winning World Supersport (WSS) operation – and the loss of a third of its workforce.
Yamaha triumphed in all four major motorcycling series’ in 2009 – MotoGP with Valentino Rossi, WSBK with Ben Spies, WSS with Cal Crutchlow and British Superbikes (BSB) with Leon Camier – but Visordown reports that Yamaha Motor Italia is going through a restructuring process that will likely result in the loss of 66 of its 200 staff members, due to a downturn in business.
That has led to rumours that on the WSBK bill at least, the only representation will come in the form of former double champion and Tech 3 MotoGP refugee James Toseland and Crutchlow at the factory outfit, with no official WSS team, with whom the latter stormed to the 2009 riders’ crown.
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Hopefully someone will come in and take the project on away from Yamaha Italia as it was great to see Honda get its nose bloodied this year after too long a domination by Ten Kate. Seems a bit of a poor thing to give Rea a test on it and then not make a ride available for next year too if this is the case. Although the world economic slump has no doubt had an affect on revenues/sponsorships for motorcycle racing as well as bike sales, I believe this could be a short sighted view as it means that if Yamaha pull out now when they come back they'll have lost a lot of development time and with the ever changing face of the circuits used in world motorsport no chance of any data logging to help with future set ups etc....... they will have to invest more money to address the balance with Honda etc!
It is a clear statement of the marketing situation. The advertises/sponsors don'r have the spare cash to waste on moving billboards. Bike (presumeably racing bike) sales are not sufficient to support the effort either.
It is a fact of life. Compared to not having a job on the personal scale it barely registers. PAL.
Yamaha may be winning everything but still people aren't stupid enough to buy their crappy products - COME ON HONDA!!! REPSOL ROSS
Yamaha may be winning everything but still people aren't stupid enough to buy their crappy products- COME ON HONA!!! REPSOL ROSS
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