Involved since 1979, no more from 2023: Yamaha stops the factory programme in the bike classification of the Dakar Rally and the Cross-Country World Championship and reorients itself
The 2022 Dakar Rally, which took place in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of January, was the last for the time being in which Yamaha was a factory participant. The Japanese motorbike manufacturer announced on Friday that the Dakar programme will be stopped with immediate effect.
Yamaha is the only manufacturer to have participated consistently since the Dakar premiere in 1979. That is now over. However, it is not just the Dakar Rally itself that is affected by Yamaha’s withdrawal, but the entire World Cross-Country Championship, whose 2022 season opener was the Dakar in January.
“While the Dakar Rally has essentially managed to stay true to its roots, even though it has left its spiritual home in Africa, the world in which it takes place has changed significantly,” said Eric de Seynes, president of Yamaha Motor Europe.
“Our off-road customers today have different expectations and are looking for different products. We have to respond to this if we want to stay ahead of the game. That is why we have decided to end our long history on two wheels in the Dakar Rally and the World Cross Country Championship,” explains de Seynes.
The very first edition of the Dakar Rally in 1979 was won by a Yamaha rider in the motorbike classification. It was the Frenchman Cyril Neveu on an XT500. In total, Yamaha has won the bike classification of the world’s most famous desert rally nine times, with Stephane Peterhansel triumphing six times, Neveu twice and Edi Orioli once. Overview: All Dakar Rally winners since 1979
In Yamaha’s last Dakar appearance for the time being in January 2022, Adrien van Beveren and Andrew Short finished in P4 and P8 respectively in the motorbike classification. Apart from the motorbike classification, Yamaha has been strongly represented in the quad classification in recent years, albeit not on the factory side. In this class, formed purely by private riders, which has existed since 2009, Yamaha quads have been unbeaten ever since. Here, the Yamaha name will continue to be represented in the field in the future.
And also in the Side-by-Side (SSV) and Light Prototypes categories, which have only existed since 2017 and 2021 respectively, Yamaha will remain involved. Even more: “We will strengthen our commitment to the Dakar on four wheels with the Yamaha YXZ1000R SSV,” says de Seynes. In the Light Prototypes, which is in a way the professional class of the SSV classification, Yamaha has been working with X-raid since 2021.
On the subject of motorbikes in desert rallies, de Seynes concludes: “Yamaha’s involvement in rally raid events with motorbikes is not over. But our future involvement must have a closer connection with our customers and their wishes, developing the potential of the Tenere 700 in a direction that allows them to rediscover the more adventurous side of rallies. “
