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?

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.

Jarvis has managed some of the biggest names in the sport, including Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies, and Fabio Quartararo. He has seen the highest highs and sometimes, the lowest lows. And after a difficult couple of seasons, he leaves Yamaha as they are rebuilding for the future.

It has been a very long and storied career. At the second Misano round last year, I sat down to take a long look back at his career with Lin Jarvis. He spoke at length about how he got interested in motorcycles, how he ended up running Yamaha's MotoGP project, and more. Jarvis talked about dealing with Max Biaggi, managing Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, and how difficult managing the fallout of 2015 was. Plus, he talks about missing out on Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden.

The entire interview is to be published over the next three days. In the first part of the interview, Jarvis talks about how he got started, losing all his possessions in Rome, suffering burnout from pushing himself too hard, and managing Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa.

In The Beginning

Q: First of all, why motorcycles? How did you end up being involved in motorbikes?