Andrea Dovizioso's impending return to Yamaha MotoGP duties comes in a pivotal moment for the manufacturer's premier-class programme - while its longer-term test rider plans are becoming clearer.
Yamaha's regular tester Cal Crutchlow, who took up the role for 2021 after calling time on a 10-season MotoGP career, has been unavailable to ride the M1 due to ongoing complications from hand surgery from earlier in this year.
Yamaha, as a 'Rank D' manufacturer under the new concession status, is entitled to six wildcards in a season, and three were planned for Crutchlow - but he had to pull out of the Mugello race in May and was replaced by World Superbike rider Remy Gardner at Silverstone.
The first Misano race in early September had been earmarked as his third appearance, but Crutchlow's continued absence casts doubt on that - and perhaps suggests Dovizioso could be in line to run the race instead. Adding further credence to that theory is the fact Gardner has a World Superbike clash for both of MotoGP's Misano weekends.
The 38-year-old Dovizioso first dropped off the MotoGP grid in 2020, and then retired for good after a brief, largely uncompetitive return with the now-defunct RNF Yamaha team.
He has been an active motocross rider post-retirement - and had a bad crash in April of this year, which required him to be airlifted to the hospital and left him with fractures to his ribs, vertebrae, sternum and right clavicle among other injuries.
Four months later, he will join up with Yamaha's test team to run in a two-day private test at Misano on August 20-21 - with the manufacturer's race riders also in attendance thanks to its concession status.
"I am sorry that Cal is still not well, and I hope he recovers quickly," said Dovizioso of his test outing.
"Having said that, I am happy and excited to have the chance to get on a MotoGP bike again, and I would like to thank Yamaha for this opportunity. I hope I will be able to make my contribution to the development of the bike."
Team director Massimo Meregalli wished Crutchlow "a speedy recovery" but said Yamaha "can't afford to be idle in the meantime" - which is why it has drafted in "a highly skilled and precise rider who has a clear understanding of the technical side of MotoGP" in Dovizioso.
THE STATE OF PLAY
Dovizioso's return comes at a particularly tough time for Yamaha, announced in the immediate aftermath of a brutal Austrian Grand Prix weekend for the firm.
Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins - the latter running a newer spec of the Yamaha engine - combined for no points and struggled to even really separate themselves from their fellow backmarkers on the Honda RC213Vs.
The Red Bull Ring had been something of a bogey track for Yamaha in the past, but the new M1 does not have much in common with those title-contending Yamahas in the past that had to look at damage limitation in the Austrian GP due to their top speed shortcomings.
Quartararo, who this weekend had his sights on making Q2 but acknowledged after qualifying that there had been no chance, mimed a dagger to the heart when asked for his feeling when seeing the laptimes Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia had produced in the pole battle.
"What do you want me to think?" he laughed. "I don't know what to think.
"It's difficult. But we are working hard, we haven't found a solution yet - but it's hard to see these guys that, basically, '21 and '22 I was fighting for pole position also with them."
Quartararo has now accepted that the biggest shortcoming of the M1 is rear grip, not just in acceleration but in mid-corner - something that Dovizioso was insisting on strongly in his final season already, before Yamaha had taken a step in terms of top speed.
The private test at Misano will be followed by the Aragon race and then a Misano double-header (thanks to Kazakhstan being replaced) with a collective test day in-between.
"Quite a lot of things to test, hopefully they work," Quartararo said of the initial Misano plan.
"To be honest, what we've changed [that's visible] on the outside was the best change we made. We changed the aero, was better. But I think to find mechanical grip, it's not by aero - maybe a little bit, but the amount of grip that we miss, it's a lot.
"Also, when there is grip, the bike is working not too bad, but when it drops the gap between grip and no grip is way bigger than the others. This is what we have to fix and I think this is mechanical grip and especially electronics."
A NEW SIGNING?
In the meantime, Yamaha is closing in on a major longer-term addition to its test rider ranks - one whose arrival is not connected to Dovizioso standing in for Crutchlow.
Augusto Fernandez, who is being discarded by KTM after this year, appears to have been convinced to come into the fold after a sales pitch by Quartararo.
"It's already a few months that I'm pushing to have a test rider that has been on a MotoGP bike really recently," said Quartararo. "A rider that is really hungry to move.
"Augusto is clearly one rider that I've pushed [for] since a few months ago. And I think he's young, he's riding fast, for sure he'll do some wildcards next year. With four Yamahas next year [after Pramac switches from Ducati], for sure if he's riding fast he has the possibility to come back also, in the championship."
Quartararo's hope to make use of Fernandez's motivation to return is bolstered by Fernandez's own words - as he openly admitted that a Yamaha test gig is now his most attractive option specifically because it maximises his chances of one day being back on the grid again.
"Now that Fabio's talking about that, I will also!" he said when The Race relayed Quartararo's words to him.
"Fabio came to me a few races ago, to tell me that Yamaha is doing a new test team and they need a good rider, and he thought about me. And yeah, the first thing coming to my mind is [it's] like a retirement, no? But yeah, then thinking - it's the best opportunity to get back in this paddock [on the grid]. More than going to [World] Superbike.
"I could be on a factory bike, doing a lot of tests, fighting for a lot of wildcards as well - and if I perform, as is my plan, to perform to get back on the grid, whenever but to get back here... it's not done, we are still talking. But yeah, I see this opportunity as the best opportunity to come back."
Fernandez said he is close to an agreement with Yamaha already, but his arrival would not necessarily equate to Crutchlow's departure - given KTM's example of having multiple regular test riders and Honda being set to follow suit next year, with Aleix Espargaro joining Stefan Bradl.
