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The riders for the SIC-Yamaha-Angel Nieto-MotoGP Team for 2019 have been confirmed.
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They are 2017 Moto2 Champion Franco Morbidelli and current Moto2 Fabio Quartararo.
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The news was confirmed by Yamaha Factory Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis.
The mystery over which riders will join the SIC Yamaha Angel Nieto MotoGP Team from the 2019 season has been confirmed as 2017 Moto2 Champion Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo.
The rider line-up was confirmed by Yamaha Factory Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis when he spoke to Simon Crafar during the Austrian GP over the weekend.
The satellite Yamaha MotoGP team would have been left vacant by the departure of the Monster Energy Tech3 Yamaha team to KTM next year. The move also brought riders Johann Zarco and Hafiz Syahrin in tow.
The interview with Jarvis confirmed that Yamaha does have a final say on who rides for the satellite team, since the satellite team also provides extra data to the factory: “They’re an Independent Team. Of course, any rider they select needs to be finally approved by us at being at the level and the capacity to ride the M1. So they’ve (SIC) chosen to go for Franco Morbidelli, who is a rider who is very interesting to us because he’s a World Champion, he’s an Academy rider and he definitely has talent. I think he’ll do better on the M1 than he is doing this year on the Honda so in the case of Franco there was no doubt at all from the beginning.”
And the second rider? It will be Quartararo, confirms Jarvis:
“In the case of Quartararo he will be a rookie, but he’s young – only 19 – and he’s definitely talented. He lost his way maybe for a year or two but he’s showing promise again this year. But I think he could be one of the very good riders for the future. I think the case of Syahrin has shown that sometimes you can take a choice and if the guy’s got talent and is brought in without expectation, he can deliver. So we’re quite comfortable with the choice.”
Finally, on the equipment the team will be supplied by Yamaha, Jarvis was more coy. Will it be something like Tech 3 or more than that?
“It will be something like Tech 3 or more than that,” replies the Yamaha Factory Racing Managing Director.
