The Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube Dakar Rally effort will include Hélder Rodrigues, Alessandro Botturi and an all-new WR450F Rally.
There’s little question that Yamaha is just as intent upon stopping KTM’s 14-year win streak and regaining past Dakar Rally glory as rival Japanese brand Honda, and the “Blu Cru” is confident that its all-new Yamaha WR450F Rally has the goods to deliver a victory in race described as “the most demanding rally-raid in the world.”
According to Yamaha, the new WR450F Rally is the product of a year of extensive development and testing, and it boasts the most advanced engine and chassis technology ever developed for rally use by the company. Yamaha says that the 2016 version is optimized in terms of weight and design. Highlights include a new fuel-injection system that, Yamaha says, helps the bike to produce string and linear torque. Particular attention was also paid to improving the bike’s aerodynamics as well as its maneuverability.
“The priority was given on optimizing the overall set up of the motorcycle”, Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube Team Manager José Leloir said. “The lighter the motorcycle is, the faster it goes, then the easier the riders can ride and the least they get tired.”
Rider fatigue is always a consideration in the grueling Dakar Rally, and it will be again this year. The 2016 edition will last 15 days and cover 9319 kilometers (approximately 5787 miiles).
Next to KTM, Yamaha has enjoyed the most success in the Dakar, with a total of nine wins in the hallowed rally, including the first two motorcycle class wins in 1979 and 1980, thanks to TT500-mounted Cyril Neveu of France. The great Stephane Peterhansel strung together three consecutive wins from 1991-93, and then scored three more wins out of the next five editions (1995, ’97, ’98), his only loss at the hand of fellow Yamaha rider Edi Orioli in 1996 after Orioli jumped ship from the Cagiva brand on which he won the 1994 Dakar Rally.
But Yamaha’s 1990s success came aboard the since-outlawed twin-cylinder machinery, and brand’s success has been checkered at best in the new era of single-cylinder machines. The brand managed to maintain a presence inside the top 10 in several editions since then, thanks to the efforts of France’s David Frétigné and Portugal’s Hélder Rodrigues, and it has reached the overall podium three times since 2009. Dakar motorcycle legend Cyril Despres perhaps gave Yamaha its best chance for victory in a resurgent factory effort by the company during the 2014 Dakar Rally, ultimately winning a stage but suffering bad luck during earlier stages to come home fourth, behind steady riding Yamaha teammate Olivier Pain. Last year’s race was particularly difficult for the team, with factory rider Pain’s 10th-place overall finish being the highest for a Yamaha.
But the factory team is buoyed by the return of Rodrigues, after a stint with Honda, and the addition of Italian rider and former FIM Corsica Rally winner Alessandro Botturi of Italy.
Rodrigues and Botturi have enjoyed success while wringing out the WR450F Rally throughout 2015 in anticipation of the 2016 Dakar Rally. They finished first and second respectively in the Rally of Tunisia and second and third in the TransAnatolia Rally Raid (Turkey). Rodrigues was third in the Sardinia Rally, and Botturi won the Morroco Rally.
The 2016 Dakar Rally is scheduled to begin from Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 2.
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