Outgoing Yamaha MotoGP team boss reveals unfulfilled career dream
“That was my dream, to try to get to 10 titles”
Outgoing Yamaha MotoGP team boss Lin Jarvis says he’d dreamed of winning 10 titles in the premier class and hoped the final two would have come from Fabio Quartararo.
Jarvis called time on a lifelong career with Yamaha, having also been part of its grand prix project since 1998, at the end of last year.
In his time, he oversaw the dominant Valentino Rossi years for the Japanese brand, the rise of Jorge Lorenzo and the rivalry between the pair, and latterly the Quartararo's championship victory.
The last two years have been tough for Yamaha as it sharply faded from title winners in 2021 to not even scoring podiums in 2024.
However, Jarvis managed to get Quartararo and Alex Rins on new two-year deals, negotiate the return of a satellite structure in the form of Pramac for 2025 and make key personnel hirings to bolster Yamaha’s comeback effort.
Jarvis has been replaced by Paolo Pavesio for 2025.
In an interview with Greek publication MotoGP World, Jarvis admits not winning more titles with Quartararo is a dream unfulfilled - but ends his career feeling like he has “completed the job”.
“I’d say that since we won the last championship in 2021, even I personally didn’t think we’d struggle so much in the past few years,” Jarvis said.
“I was hoping that during my career, which I knew would come to an end sooner or later, I’d win at least two more titles with Yamaha thanks to Fabio.
“That was my dream, to try to get to 10 titles. Unfortunately, in mid 2022, we quickly realised that Ducati was growing and the speed of development and performance was too fast for us.
“So, we were in trouble as early as 2022. Then, in 2023, we partnered with [former Formula 1 engine chief Luca] Marmorini who would help us, especially in the engine area.
“From that moment on, we started to rebuild because we were seeing Ducati, but also the other European ones likes KTM and Aprilia, were growing rapidly.
“We kept going forward like that. Honda, on the other hand, remained unchanged. So, to close that we had to invest a lot.
“We started again in 2023, and that year we made a lot of changes. I’m really happy to be able to leave at the end of this year with my current role.
“If I had left at the end of last year, I would’ve felt that I hadn’t even remotely completed the job. Before, there was still no foundation for the future.
“But we’ve done a lot more this year.”
