“Significant turning point”? Yamaha explain Cal Crutchlow's MotoGP wild-card

The Englishman, who was called up for the final six races of last season after Andrea Dovizioso stepped down from the RNF team, will make his 2023 return for the ‘YAMALUBE RS4GP Racing Team’ at the September 29-October 1 event.

Although Crutchlow has made ten MotoGP appearances since retiring as a full-time rider at the end of 2020, this will be his first as an actual wild-card.

Yamaha aims to use the event in order for Crutchlow to ‘work on prototype parts analysis in a premier class race setting’ as the under-pressure factory ‘affirms their mission to bring extra excitement to their home GP and accelerate bike development’.

• Explained: eFuels, Biofuels and MotoGP 2024 - Exclusive
• Sam Lowes: Victory at my last British GP “would be massive” - Exclusive
• Iker Lecuona back on the MotoGP grid for Silverstone

“This wild-card will be a significant turning point"

A wild-card rider is allowed three engines for their exclusive use during each event but remains subject to 'all technical regulations related to their specific manufacturer, including engine specification'.

“I believe this wild-card will be a significant turning point to improve the performance of the YZR-M1,” claimed Yamaha MotoGP project leader Kazutoshi Seki.

“The engineers are working very hard, and Cal‘s participation in the Japanese GP benefits the improvement of the YZR-M1 for the factory team – not only for this season but also for the next.”

YAMALUBE RS4GP Team Director Kazuhiro Masuda said: “I would like to take this chance to develop the YZR-M1 in a maximum way.

"I am fully convinced that the feedback from this wild-card race, ridden with prototype parts, will make the performance of the machine much stronger.”

Yamaha made a big push to upgrade its maximum engine performance for this season but the downsides appear to have cancelled out the benefits with some race times slower than last year.

"To give more power to the engine, we lost some rideability, unfortunately, and that thing is killing us right now," explained Franco Morbidelli.

Meanwhile, other key components such as the aerodynamics and chassis appear unchanged from last season with newer versions rejected, including some much larger aero tested by Crutchlow during the winter.

With RNF switching to Aprilia, Yamaha currently has just two full-time MotoGP riders; 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo and 2020 runner-up Morbidelli, at the factory Monster team.

The pair are currently just ninth and eleventh in the riders' world championship, with Yamaha fifth and last in the constructors' standings. The M1 has also not taken a MotoGP victory since Sachsenring 2022, over a year ago.

Each MotoGP manufacturer is permitted a maximum of three wild-card entries per season, but not at consecutive events. There are a further six rounds after Motegi, leaving open the possibility of more Crutchlow appearances this year.