Overview
- Yamaha announced this week that Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins will leave the factory team at the end of the 2026 season and that Jorge Martín and Ai Ogura will be the factory riders for 2027–2028.
- The deal gives Ogura a two-year factory contract and requires him to leave his current Trackhouse satellite arrangement at season’s end to join Martín as Yamaha’s factory teammate.
- Yamaha framed the move as a technical and development choice, saying Martín’s championship experience and Ogura’s rapid rise make them the pair to lead evolution of the factory bike under the 2027 rules.
- Quartararo posted a public message thanking Yamaha for eight seasons as he called time on his long association with the team after a challenging 2026 campaign.
- The switch reshuffles MotoGP’s maker-driven development race by putting a recent world champion and a first-time race winner together at Yamaha while closing a chapter that began for Quartararo in Yamaha’s satellite team in 2019 and peaked with his 2021 title.