MotoGP | Jarvis (Yamaha): “No veto on Marquez in Yamaha” [Video]

MotoGP Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team – Last week the SIC-Petronas Yamaha Team was presented and on this occasion the riders were also announced, our Franco Morbidelli and the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo.

The team will be led by Wilco Zeelenberg and will have Ramón Forcada for Morbidelli and Diego Gubellini for Quartararo as technical managers.

It was precisely the choice of the latter that caused discussion, as Spaniards Alvaro Bautista (who will race with the Ducati Superbike in place of Marco Melandri) and Alex Marquez were also in the running after Dani Pedrosa had announced his retirement from competition.

It was precisely the "rejection" of the latter that caused discussion. Marc Marquez, multiple MotoGP world champion, in an exclusive interview with Sky had in fact underlined how Marquez in Yamaha was not welcome.

“Lin Jarvis (Yamaha Team Director, ed.) told us that you can't see a Marquez in Yamaha. He respects us, but he had already told me in 2016 that a Marquez in Yamaha would not have been a feasible solution. However, my brother in Moto2 has not yet achieved the results that a rider must achieve to go to MotoGP. I knew that there would be no possibility for me to go to Yamaha, but I didn't expect that this veto would also extend to the whole the family. As always, however, if a rider wins many GPs, all doors are open: we have to talk more on the track and less off it."

Now came the response from Lin Jarvis, who said: “I've never spoken to Marc, so I can't say anything because I haven't spoken to him. It's clear that there were other drivers we could have chosen for this project. I think Marc himself admitted that a move to MotoGP for his brother Alex was still premature and he wasn't our first choice. It would also be strange to have a brother in Honda and one in Yamaha."