MotoGP: Demerger of the two Giants- Fiat and Yamaha
The two giant companies venturing together, Fiat and Yamaha, hold to their name all three MotoGP titles in season 2010. Team Yamaha also retains the MotoGP World Champion 2010, Jorge Lorenzo for the next season.
Despite these brilliant stats, Yamaha has announced that Fiat will no longer be their title sponsor for the upcoming season of MotoGP. The team’s official website has confirmed this demerger.
This departure has been speculate the previous season but this year it was expected for the Italian star Valentino Rossi moving to Ducati from Yamaha. It was confirmed last night when the Yamaha team announced that Fiat would no longer be their title sponsor.
It was tweeted on Fiat Yamaha’s Twitter page that, “The team will change title sponsor and therefore it won’t be “Fiat Yamaha Team” anymore.”
The two companies, Fiat and Yamaha started their partnership in the MotoGP back in 2007. This merger was fortunate for both as after a shallow successful season 2007, the Fiat sponsored Yamaha team, with their YZR-M1s have been winning the Rider’s and the
Team’s World Championship year after year since MotoGP 2008.
The Italian car manufacturer Fiat became the first non-tobacco sponsor for the Japanese motorcycle team Yamaha, of the four-stroke MotoGP era. Fiat was also pleased by this strange merger with them being able to engage more young car-buying audience than
even Formula One.
Yamaha, being the successful manufacturer for recent seasons, gaining the Rider’s, Team’s as well as the Manufacturer’s title for the successive three years now seems troubled being unable to secure the title sponsor for future. This surely is a sign of
worrying for the MotoGP economics.
For the moment, they don’t have any title sponsor for their livery to be used by Lorenzo and the new team-mate Ben Spies in 2011. However, brands such as Air Asia and Telefonica have been rumoured to the sponsorship vacant by Fiat’s departure. Still no agreement
has been made with any of the seeking sponsors.
Fiat, sponsoring another team and most probably the one where the Italian star has moved, Ducati, is not clear so far but is expected that they shall certainly be throwing their weight behind Rossi in any case.
Regardless of the lack of sponsor to the Yamaha team, they still hold the confidence retaining the team with the World Champion 2010 Jorge Lorenzo and one of the best young riders in the MotoGP Ben Spies.
Either way, if Yamaha finds a sponsor sooner or latter or even if they fly under their own corporate banner; they certainly are one of the leading contenders for the title in the MotoGP season 2011.
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