MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

On December 31st, 2024, Lin Jarvis stepped down as Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, the organization that runs Yamaha's MotoGP project. In the 26 years that Jarvis has been in charge, Yamaha have known incredible success. Eight rider titles, with Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Fabio Quartararo, as well as six manufacturer and seven team titles. Under Jarvis, Yamaha won the triple crown five times, in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2015.

You can read the first part of this marathon interview with Jarvis here. In the second part, we talked about how he signed Valentino Rossi, and how Rossi saved Yamaha's MotoGP project. Jarvis also talks about the gamble Yamaha took signing Jorge Lorenzo when it looked like Valentino Rossi might go off and race in F1, the difficulty of managing that situation, and the backlash he faced in Italy for doing so.

The Rossi years

Q: First came the switch from 500s to four-strokes. Was it still Max Biaggi who left and Valentino came?

Lin Jarvis: No, we had some interim period. Max and Carlos were with us for four years. So, that means from ’99 through the end of 2002. Then we had 2003 when we had a mix of [Alex] Barros and [Marco] Melandri and Olivier Jacque and Carlos, I think. That was a difficult year. So, we’d come close in previous years, especially in the 500s we came close.

Then when we switched to four-stroke, Honda were all dominant. I think nobody was a match for Honda at that stage. We missed a championship that we should have won in 2000 when I think Kenny Roberts Jr. took the championship. That was really our miss to not be able to achieve.

Then as it continued anyway, we got into 2003 and it was the worst year that we’d had thus far. Obviously, we weren’t achieving our objectives, because we didn’t win a single race in 2003. That’s when came the critical moment of we either have to step up or step out, basically, from a top management point of view.