The arrival of PATA Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team saw Yamaha make a return to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship in 2016, with a brand new YZF R1 fresh from a spate of international victories and ready to take on the paddock. With some good speed, especially in qualifying, and progress being made, WorldSBK.com caught up with Team Principal Paul Denning at the recent GEICO US Round to talk about the first half of the new World Superbike adventure, and where the team is going from here.

“It has been challenging,” says Denning of the season so far. “And we got a little bit unlucky in that at the point where we really started to make progress with the bike and the input from Yamaha Japan really started to help the project, we had injuries for both the riders. Obviously Sylvain’s was more severe than Alex’s but even so, Alex’s broken collarbone in Sepang lost him that Sepang race, Donington and also to a large extent Misano as well.”

2014 WorldSBK Champion Sylvain Guintoli suffered a high side crash in Imola that has seen the French rider in recovery since, and teammate Alex Lowes then broke his collarbone in an incident in Race 2 at Sepang International Circuit. Although trying to ride through the pain at his home Round at Donington Park, the Brit was forced to miss the races and returned at Misano although less than fully fit. Now back to his best, the Brit is pushing forward.

“The switch from Suzuki to Yamaha is not only a completely new motorcycle, it’s also a completely new working system,” continues Denning. “In the past Crescent was responsible for everything, and whilst we achieved some good results and highlights, over the course of a season it’s impossible to compete with manufacturers. We’re able to compete now as a pure racing team and Yamaha develop the bike both in Japan and in Europe – of course with our input – but there’s just a bigger structure now and a far better level of resource across the board”.

“After having spent a lot of time with the new ECU in the MotoGP project and made a lot of progress – as can be seen in Rossi and Lorenzo’s results – that has now freed up some extra resource for the WorldSBK Project and that is making a massive difference. On the electronics side, on the chassis side…and of course Alex riding in the Suzuka 8h on the Yamaha Factory Japan machine means he’s able to understand the differentials, and working with the engineers there helps them to understand how they can help us with this bike, and the Pirelli tyres. It’s helping a lot so we need to thank them; without them it’s not going to be possible to compete with Ducati and Kawasaki. The structure brings its challenges in terms of ways to work and flexibility etc, but it’s the way to win.”

Winning is always the buzzword in any motorsport paddock, and especially paddocks in which the trophies denote champions of the world. After the progress made already and the structure now settling in, what are the targets set for the rest of this season and next? Have the goalposts moved?

“The bike has taken big leaps forward in the last 3 or 4 races,” continues Denning, with the project now starting to take serious shape. “The input from Yamaha Japan has been extremely important, and we’re now there or thereabouts. In addition, the areas in which we need to improve are more clearly defined. Everything is now focused on 2017 although obviously we’re trying to get the best results we can over the balance of the season. But really, we’re aiming at challenging the established Championship contenders in 2017.”

Before 2017 kicks off there are four Rounds to go as the title fights hot up in the WorldSBK paddock, with Germany first to play host at Lausitzring in September as the summer break comes to an end and the engines fire up once again.