Rossi, Vinales reveal Monster Energy Yamaha 2020 MotoGP livery

The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team has unveiled its 2020 team livery with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales at Sepang.

In a largely unchanged look from last year when it welcomed Monster Energy as its new title sponsor, Rossi and Vinales will team-up again for the 2020 campaign at the factory Yamaha squad.

Yamaha has been busily preparing over the winter, while also making headlines last month with a series of rider contract confirmations, as the Iwata factory returns to testing action at Sepang with the rest of the MotoGP grid on February 7-9.

Both Rossi and Vinales will be hoping to benefit from the development work of Yamaha’s new test rider Jorge Lorenzo, three-time MotoGP world champion with the Japanese manufacturer, who is a key figure in the overhaul at Yamaha’s Test Team. Rossi’s ex-crew chief Silvano Galbusera has become Lorenzo’s crew chief in the test squad.

Say “Hello” to the Factory Yamaha Squad #MonsterYamaha | #MotoGP | @MonsterEnergy pic.twitter.com/Ymz5SqYG5l

— Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (@YamahaMotoGP) February 6, 2020

The 2020 MotoGP campaign is also set to mark Rossi’s last as an official factory Yamaha rider as he is effectively replaced by Fabio Quartararo from 2021. Rossi has already been offered a full factory Yamaha if he decides to continue to race next season – a decision he’ll make over the opening rounds of this season as he assesses both his and Yamaha’s competitiveness. If Rossi does continue into 2021 he would probably line-up for Petronas Yamaha SRT.

Maverick Vinales has already signed a new factory Yamaha deal which ties him to the team until the end of 2022.

On the technical side, Yamaha has been focusing on extracting more horsepower and top speed from its inline-four engine for 2020 without sacrificing its strengths in cornering.

Earlier in the day both Suzuki and Petronas Yamaha revealed their 2020 colours.