Yamaha 2023 MotoGP Team Unveil

Monster Energy Yamaha channels “military-like focus” ahead of the 2023 MotoGP season, unveiling its new Camo MotoGP livery.

Monster Energy Yamaha was the first factory team to show off their new colors ahead of the 2023 MotoGP season in a ceremony held at the Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing’s 2023 “3S Dealer Meeting” in Jakarta, Indonesia. The team’s new livery, a camo-style paint scheme with blue stripes adorning the fairing sides, is part of a global rebranding of the company’s premier race teams that include Eli Tomac and Dylan Ferrandis’s AMA motocross and supercross team, as well as the MXGP team of Jeremy Seewer, Maxime Renaux and Glenn Coldenhoff.

“This year, we are entering our eleventh year with Monster Energy as our sponsor and our fifth season with them as our title sponsor,” said Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Principle, Lin Jarvis. “This occasion deserved a new livery and a fresh start that matches our military-like focus as we fight for the 2023 MotoGP title. As a part of the strong global alliance between Yamaha and Monster Energy, the new look and feel will also be adopted by Yamaha’s factory teams in MX and Supercross, showing our unity. We are also thankful to our official team sponsors, partners, and suppliers, many of whom we have had long-term partnerships with.”

Present in Jakarta were factory riders Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, who will both be looking for a turnaround in fortunes this year, but for different reasons.

The Yamaha YZR-M1 was heavily criticized by all four riders who raced it last year (Quartararo, Morbidelli, Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder), with only Quartararo able to consistently challenge for victory while the rest often struggled to get into the points. Indeed, the idiosyncrasies of the M1 caused veteran Dovizioso to call time on his career at the Misano MotoGP, some seven rounds before the end of the season.

Chief among the problems was a chronic lack of horsepower, which was often cited as the main reason for Fabio Quartararo’s implosion when he surrendered a 91-point lead in the series to eventual champion, Francesco Bagnaia and Ducati.

As the only inline four-cylinder engine on the grid now, Suzuki has permanently shelved their MotoGP operations, Yamaha has their backs against the wall in a sea of V4s from Ducati, Honda, KTM and Aprilia and has turned to Formula One expertise to try and recover the deficit.

Former Ferrari F1 engine chief Luca Marmorini has been tasked with reducing the gap to the V4s and, in effect, saving the inline four-cylinder engine from extinction in MotoGP. Yamaha MotoGP’s Team Director Massimo Meregalli has publicly stated if the inline-four cannot produce the required performance to fight with Bagnaia and Ducati, the company will consider joining the V4 ranks for the first time since the end of the 500cc two-stroke era in 2001.

While Quartararo simply wants more motorcycle performance, Morbidelli is hoping for an increase in his own performance as well. The Italian, who finished an impressive second to Joan Mir in the 2020 MotoGP Championship for the Petronas Yamaha team, has gone through two desperate seasons on the factory Yamaha and knows this year he’s fighting for his career with Yamaha making no secret of its desire to bring their 2021 WorldSBK Champion, Toprak Razgatlioglu, over to the big time. And with Fabio Quartararo signed up until the end of 2024, Morbidelli knows it’s his neck on the chopping block.

The 2023 MotoGP season will formally kick off with the first test at Sepang in Malaysia, February 5 through 7.

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