MotoGP: Yamaha Sign Alex Rins for 2024 Season

Yamaha has announced that Alex Rins would be joining Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha factory squad for the 2024 MotoGP season. After the shocking MotoGP departure of Suzuki's factory team this season, Rins made the transition to LCR Honda and won the COTA race to stop HRC's winless streak. However, Rins has only ever finished a race in the top ten once, and the 27-year-old is becoming impatient with the sluggish delivery of fresh components to the satellite LCR garage as he recovers from a fractured leg sustained at Mugello. It is believed that the Spanish rider has an out provision in his two-year HRC contract should a factory team offer come his way. Unlike the Honda, Ducati, KTM, and Aprilia models, the M1 from Yamaha has an Inline engine design, much like the GSX-RR. Many Honda riders were hurt in the 2023 season because the Honda RC213V is extremely difficult to ride. The bike offers no warning before the rider tucks the front or loses the rear and high-sides himself.

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MotoGP: About Alex Rins 

Numerous race wins (6 in MotoGP, 4 in Moto2, and 8 in Moto3) and podium finishes (18 in MotoGP, 17 in Moto2, and 23 in Moto3) across several classes attest to the experienced Spaniard's prowess on the track. Rins is a great addition to the Yamaha team, thanks to his wealth of experience and tremendous skill. Fans of MotoGP all around the globe are waiting for Rins to return to the sport after he suffered a leg injury in the 2023 Italian GP Sprint. He's had two operations and is doing all he can to get well.

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing said, "We are delighted that Alex is joining the Yamaha line-up, and we warmly welcome him to the Yamaha MotoGP group. We expect Alex to be a great asset. He has vast experience as a MotoGP rider and is known to be a natural talent and a multi-time MotoGP class race winner. He already has experience with two other MotoGP manufacturers and has ridden bikes with similar characteristics to the YZR-M1, which should help him adapt quickly to our bike. His win in COTA earlier this year underlines his speed, hunger, and determination to succeed."

"Alex has been away from the MotoGP paddock for a while due to the injury he sustained at Mugello, but we are confident that he should be fully recovered and up to speed for the 2024 season. We are really looking forward to working with him and believe that he will collaborate well with Fabio and enhance the total performance of the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team," he added.

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MotoGP: Yamaha’s 2023 Season So Far

While 2021 world champion Quartararo helped Yamaha to one grand prix podium and one sprint rostrum in 2023, the Japanese factory team is currently dead last in the manufacturers' rankings. Both the Yamaha and Honda factories in Japan have been having a tough start to the 2023 MotoGP season. Since 1975, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Honda have each had a premier-class championship-winning rider in every season save for Casey Stoner's dominant 2007 season and Francesco Bagnaia's stunning comeback from 91 points down to win the title last year.

Because of Brad Binder's track limitations punishment for KTM, Fabio Quartararo was able to pass him and take third place in the Americas Grand Prix and hold onto it in the Dutch GP sprint. Yamaha is now in last position in the constructors' standings, 203 points behind leader Ducati and just seven points adrift of Honda. Except for two sprints and one Grand Prix, Ducati has won every race in 2023. As a result of their difficulties, Honda and Yamaha are once again a topic of discussion about possible concessions to aid the faltering Japanese titans.