Although the manufacturer has not yet provided an official confirmation, Yamaha MotoGP manager Lin Jarvis has hinted that he will step back at the end of the 2024 season, giving the team’s management to someone else for the first time in almost thirty years as the 66-year-old approaches retirement.
Since taking over the squad for the first time in 1998, Jarvis has led Yamaha to eight world championships throughout his 26 years in leadership. Before Fabio Quartararo’s rise guaranteed the 2021 title, he was the architect behind Valentino Rossi’s departure from Honda, which resulted in four titles. Jarvis’ choice to sign a young Jorge Lorenzo also brought three titles.
Although the manufacturer has not yet provided an official confirmation, Yamaha MotoGP manager Lin Jarvis has hinted that he will step back at the end of the 2024 season, giving the team’s management to someone else for the first time in almost thirty years as the 66-year-old approaches retirement.
Since taking over the squad for the first time in 1998, Jarvis has led Yamaha to eight world championships throughout his 26 years in leadership. Before Fabio Quartararo’s rise guaranteed the 2021 title, he was the architect behind Valentino Rossi’s departure from Honda, which resulted in four titles. Jarvis’ choice to sign a young Jorge Lorenzo also brought three titles.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
Upon preliminary evaluation, Maio Meregalli, the team manager, seems like the most logical candidate to ascend through the Yamaha hierarchy and succeed his present supervisor.
The former racer from Italy is without a doubt the most equipped person to comprehend the contemporary workings of the team, having been a crucial part of its structure for years.
He has also been a crucial part of Yamaha’s ongoing rebuilding drive and contributes further expertise about not only how things are moving forward but also how they are working now, which is especially vital in light of the impending rule changes in 2027.
However, there’s one big disadvantage for Meregalli. Without question a tactical master, he’s got less experience of the corporate strategy side of things, thanks to his role focusing on what happens on track rather than how a team gets to the circuit in the first place. He’s a racer first and foremost, not a businessman, and that might count against him for a CEO-type role.
PAOLO PAVESIO
Believed to be the current lead candidate for the role, Paolo Pavesio’s name will be something of an unknown to many fans thanks to a somewhat behind-the-scenes career with Yamaha to date.
A Yamaha employee for 20 years, he’s worked his way up through the ranks of first Yamaha Italy and then the European organisation to get to his current position of marketing and motorsport director, a role that gives him overall control of Yamaha Europe’s racing operations (which entails superbike and off-road racing rather than MotoGP) but little in the way of hands-on experience in the paddock.
And while being a Yamaha corporate man through and through might come as a blessing in some regards, the vacancy comes at a time when we’ve seen the current leadership trying to break the mould a little and make the team work in a more European and less Japanese way – which might not be an easy baton to pick up for someone who’s spent most of his career at the executive level of the company.
LIVIO SUPPO
When it comes to experienced names who are currently on the market and who could be tempted by Yamaha, there’s surely none more successful than former Ducati, Honda and Suzuki team boss Livio Suppo, who’s been working as a consultant for the Italtrans Moto2 team since Suzuki’s unexpected departure from MotoGP at the end of 2022.
A race-winning team boss with three different factories and someone who’s certainly never had any problems in making his Japanese bosses listen to his point of view and deliver what his team needs, he ticks many of the boxes in what Yamaha is looking for with both his experience and his personality.
The biggest question mark around him, in fact, might be just how much Yamaha wants to disrupt things by introducing Suppo to the box. Very different from Jarvis in how he runs a team and with a lot of substantial change going on already in other parts of their structure, it might be that Japan thinks introducing a character like Suppo might be too big of a change too soon.
ANDREA DOSOLI
While the majority of attention naturally falls on the highs and lows of Yamaha’s MotoGP effort, it’s managed in recent years to resurrect its production bike racing program into something very successful indeed – and a lot of the credit for doing so comes thanks to veteran boss Andrea Dosoli.
Involved with Yamaha’s superbike teams since before the introduction of the current Yamaha R1 in 2015, Dosoli’s leadership since then has brought a World Superbike title with Toprak Razgatlioglu, four consecutive Suzuka 8 Hour successes, and multiple national titles in the UK, America and Japan.
Bringing a good mix of both Yamaha experience and a history of running successful race teams, he would fit the box well for a promotion to MotoGP – that is, if Yamaha wants to disrupt a World Superbike effort that’s also in the process of rebuilding itself, with six-time champion Jonathan Rea as its spearhead following Razgatlioglu’s exit.
JOHAN STIGEFELT
Perhaps a left-field candidate given his relative lack of premier-class experience, another name who might nonetheless find himself in consideration is former Petronas Yamaha team director Johan Stigefelt, given that he not only knows how to run a MotoGP team but also knows how Yamaha works thanks to his time heading up its satellite squad.
Someone who would certainly come with the blessing of Quartararo thanks to their still-close relationship from ever since their hugely successful days together at the Malaysian satellite team, there’s likely to be some recognition given to the Swede’s success both at discovering the future world champion in 2019 and his subsequent efforts to build a strong satellite team for Yamaha.
The number one thing that’s likely to count against him, though, is a lack of factory experience – which could mean that he isn’t deemed accomplished enough for a programme currently in a crucial phase.
