Superbike: Michael Van der Mark joins Yamaha in 2017

Yamaha Motor Europe has officially announced that starting from the 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Dutch talent Michael van der Mark will race in the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team together with Alex Lowes, completing a young and highly promising line up.

After the announcement of Stefan Bradl in Honda WorldSbk, only the official announcement of Van der Mark's move to Yamaha was awaited, given the increasingly insistent rumors among the experts: for the 2014 World Supersport Champion it will be his third season in the production derivatives, where he achieved eight podiums and one pole position.

The Dutch rider, despite still being very young, just 23 years old, has already demonstrated growing maturity, speed and the hunger to win, characteristics that guarantee Yamaha the best conditions to finally be able to fight for victory next year.

The Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team and Yamaha Motor Europe have reiterated their full support for Sylvain Guintoli who, at the end of the four rounds still to be played, will say goodbye to the team after an unfortunate year, in which he had to miss all commitments from Imola onwards to due to a bad injury suffered in qualifying.
Yamaha, the Crescent team and Title Partner Pata obviously thank the French champion for his hard work and commitment in 2016 and wish him all the best for his future career.

“Yamaha's new commitment to the Superbike World Championship began in 2016, and now we look forward to taking advantage of the experience accumulated in this "comeback season", strengthened by the partnership with the Crescent team, to fight for the leading positions. top in 2017. We strongly believe in Alex's speed and talent – ​​as clearly demonstrated by his superb performance in the Suzuka Eight Hours – and Yamaha wants to help this talent mature, to win together with us, by developing and improving the YZF-R1." - he said Eric de Seynes – Yamaha Motor Europe COO – “We are pleased and happy to announce that Michael will become an integral part of the Yamaha team in 2017. At just 23 years of age, he is already world champion and is fighting well in WorldSBK, and this is already impressive self. It is important to underline that the pilot is perfectly in line with our ideas. The philosophy of choosing two young riders, who not only have the talent to fight for victory in WorldSBK, but also the ability to progress their careers with Yamaha in the future. In this way, Yamaha would like to use Superbike to demonstrate its spirit for racing with the production of the YZF-R1 and also develop the Yamaha rider family: Michael reflects this philosophy well and we are thrilled to welcome him to the team.
Finally, I would like to personally thank Sylvain for his collaboration with Yamaha in 2016. He has suffered from a long injury and some frustration since the beginning of the year, but we hope that at the end of this season he will bring us successes so we can celebrate together. I wish Sylvain all the best for his racing career and his future."

“I am very eager to start this new challenge with Yamaha. I could see the potential of the R1 during its first season in Superbike and I am convinced that with further development and the full support of Yamaha and the team, I will have the right package to fight for next year's World Superbike title” – he declared Michael van der Mark – “It is never an easy decision to leave a team and a home after so many years and successes, I will always remain grateful to Honda for the support received and I will give my all for the rest of this season, to achieve as many podiums as possible.”

“Despite some challenges to face in this first season in WorldSBK for Yamaha, it has been a pleasure to be part of the project from the beginning and I look forward to capitalizing on the work done in 2017” – he said alex lowes – “The YZF-R1 is a magical bike to ride and we are now very close to a truly competitive level in this championship. I really feel part of the Yamaha family, the team is improving and I couldn't be happier to continue together in 2017. Michael is a very fast rider, I'm sure we will push each other all year, and I can't wait to run with him."