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The new Yamaha R1 has already achieved much success on both a national and international level. However, 2016 will be its biggest challenge yet as the Japanese manufacturer rolls out its new equipment in the World Superbike Championship.

WorldSBK.com speaks exclusive with Andrea Dosoli, Road Racing Project Manager for Yamaha Motor Europe.

Tell us about this much-awaited announcement:
2015 has been important for Yamaha. At the beginning of the season we announced our new racing strategy. In road racing, we launched the new R1: a motorcycle ready to race and ready to win.

We have already won national and international championships. We have recently won the French championship and we are leading both BSB and Stock in IDM. The bike has proven to be not only fast, but reliable – as proven by victory in the Suzuka 8 Hours, the 8 Hours of Oschersleben and finishing second in the famous Bol D’Or.

Now we now need to do the next, logical step. We are ready to announce that 2016 will see Yamaha present in the World Superbike with two riders. All of the job done so far this year we will be an important base for the World Superbike machine; all of the experience we have gathered will be used as a base for the new bike.

What was the thinking behind the link-up with Crescent?
We wanted to enter with a strong partner, which will have the responsibility of the racing operation and also be responsible to cover some parts of the budget and take care that everything is running smoothly at the race track.

We, as Yamaha Motor Europe, will provide support from a technical point of view and oversee rider contracts, communication and so on. We have been searching, left and right, but as soon as we understood that Paul Denning and Crescent were available, we did our best to make an agreement with them. We believe they are the right partner for the comeback of Yamaha in World Superbike.

Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes could be a very exciting rider line-up…
The responsibility of rider choice is of Yamaha Motor Europe, but of course we shared this choice with the team. Honestly, I’m happy to have a young and strong motivated rider; a rider who never gives up and is always pushing, no matter what level of machinery is in his hands. I am sure this young guy will be able, step-by-step, to achieve real performance.

But you also need a rider with experience – a rider who has shown in the past to be fast and that - when he is requested to deliver the performance – he can do it. We believe this combination of young, motivated rider and experienced rider will be the right line-up for our project. We know it will be tough; we dropped out of the championship at the end of 2011 and ended up with the nice experience of a one-two finish in the last race. We are not expecting the same performance straight away, but we want to be honest with ourselves and improve the performance step-by-step, closing the gap to our competitors over the second half of the season.

When should we first expect to see the Yamaha R1 World Superbike on-track?
We have already defined our winter testing plan and this will start at the beginning of November. In the south of Spain, you will see us there with the winter livery, and then we will announce the new livery at the beginning of 2016.

The exact dates are yet to be confirmed, but you will be able to have a first look at the new bike and team around the 3rd or 4th of November in the south of Spain.