Yamaha’s new satellite MotoGP team deal with Pramac starts with an unprecedented seven-year commitment, highlighting how vital Yamaha felt it was to restore its presence on the grid to four bikes.
Reigning teams’ champion Pramac’s switch from Ducati was officially announced after Friday practice at the Dutch TT, but both it and the startling duration of the initial deal were confirmed by Pramac CEO Paolo Campinotti in an interview with Italian publication GPOne during track action at Assen.
Though long manufacturer/satellite relationships are far from uncommon (Pramac has been with Ducati for two decades), they are usually agreed on a rolling basis with much shorter-term contracts.
But Pramac already knows it will be part of Yamaha’s programme until at least the end of the 2032 season, covering the final two years of the current rules and the development of the new 850cc bike and keeping them together for the entire five-year period that the new rules will cover when they come into force in 2027.
Pramac will also continue where it finished with Ducati and get full factory-spec machinery at the start of next season in order to help gather as much data as possible in order to help improve the struggling M1 machine.
The project will also include a Moto2 collaboration designed to develop future MotoGP talent for Yamaha.
Pramac's arrival will end a two-season period with no satellite for Yamaha, which previously had a long relationship with Tech3 before its 2019 move to KTM, then worked with the new Petronas team that morphed into RNF for 2022 (pictured below) before leaving for Aprilia.
"The new partnership with Prima Pramac Racing will take a different form than we have used in the past," Yamaha racing managing director Lin Jarvis said.
"Rather than a satellite team, with this new agreement Yamaha have put their trust in Pramac Racing, and we will be providing them with factory bikes of the same specification used by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team.
"The targets are to accelerate bike development, which remains YMC [Yamaha Motor Co] and YMR's [Yamaha Motor Racing's] key priority in our quest to return to winning ways, as well as having four competitive riders in the MotoGP championship in two top-class teams.
"In addition to the MotoGP programme, our collaboration includes a future Moto2 project to provide a platform to groom future MotoGP riders. It is too early to give details about this programme right now as this will be developed in the months ahead."
It's still uncertain who is going to end up on the bikes in 2025, with a few names so far linked to the project - but, with Yamaha playing a substantial role in the team going forward, it's likely now that it will have a say on the Pramac line-up just as Ducati has.
Both Pramac's current duo Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli are contracted directly to Ducati, which also covers their salaries and that situation is likely to be replicated with Yamaha.
Ducati still has a six-strong presence on the 22-bike grid via its works team, Gresini and VR46. It is not yet clear how the latest-spec bikes that Pramac usually receives will be reallocated in 2025.
