Yamaha Factory Racing unveiled its new livery today, a day in advance of testing tomorrow at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. The team, which starts the season defending its third consecutive triple crown victory, fields a new rider in 2010 Rookie of the Year Ben Spies alongside the defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. The 2011 YZR-M1 features a Yamaha corporate blue colour scheme incorporating the iconic Yamaha speed block design.

The press conference, held at 1800 local time at the Sepang International circuit, included welcome speeches by Lin Jarvis, new team director Massimo Meregalli, and team manager Wilco Zeelenberg. They were joined by Shigeto Kitagawa, Masahiko Nakajima, Kouichi Tsuji and riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies.

Tomorrow's test, running from 22nd to 24th February is the second of three pre-season tests, with the third and final at Qatar on the 13th March in advance of the opening round of the 2011 championship the following week.

"I'm very happy to be here again preparing to start another season riding with Yamaha," said Jorge Lorenzo. "Winning the World Championship last season was an incredible feeling, but now we start again. I have a great crew and with the hard work of the Japanese engineers over the winter I feel confident we can fight for more success this year."

"We worked really hard last year to earn the seat with the Yamaha Factory team so it's a great feeling to be here alongside Jorge," commented Ben Spies. "It's obviously a special year for Yamaha with the 50th Anniversary of GP racing celebrations so I'm really stoked to be part of it. The bike's feeling really good, we've got a few days more of testing now to really shake it down and fine tune the set up and we'll be ready to go. I'm loving the corporate blue colour scheme, I'm a big fan of the design."

"I'm proud to be here for the 2011 Yamaha Factory Racing launch and the start of a new era for the team," said Lin Jarvis, Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing Srl. "This is an important year for us being our 50th anniversary of involvement in Grand Prix racing and we start the season not only with the reigning MotoGP World Champion but also welcoming Ben Spies, last year's Rookie of the Year to the Factory Team. It's fitting that we will line up for the start of this special year in our corporate colours."

 

SOURCE:http://www.motomatters.com/news/2011...y_no_titl.html

 

at the bottom of the side fairing, there is word "semakin di depan", that is Indonesian word, meaning "leading the way... more".

 

I really like what Lorenzo did with his number plate.

 

Sign of the times when the reigning World Champion factory team can't land a title sponsor.

The bikes look great. I hope Spies roughs up the cocky little bastard.

 

I think it might have more to do with who left the factory Yamaha team.

 

^ I'm not so sure about that. Typically, when you win the championship you have your pick of big time sponsors lining up to plaster their name on your fairings.

 

SAB is right, almost as bad as brawn gp in 09

 

im with X on this one, Suzuki maintained their sponsor(albeit with one bike), HRC got their main sponsor to up the $$$ for another bike, and Ducati had to fight off sponsors with a stick! Lorenzo isn't as marketable(Spies gets a pass since no US company would be a major sponsor anyway)

 

What you guys have to remember is that Rossi was on Yamaha when Fiat came to the team. They probably realized Rossi is the GOAT when it comes to motorcycle racing.