Yamaha 500 GP Wins - Men And Machines That Made It Possible

Over the years, Yamaha has become synonymous with the MotoGP world. Its dominance in motorsports is evident from its excellence in racing technology that has successfully translated into its production bikes as well. With Maverick Vinales conquering the 2017 French GP at the Le Mans circuit, Yamaha has recorded an astonishing 500 GP victories over the course of half a century. 

Yamaha first entered the Grand Prix in Catalina in 1956, but they had to wait for seven years to taste their first victory. The ball was set rolling in 1963 when Fumio Ito took the chequered flag at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Belgium on his RD56 in the 250cc class. Since then, Yamaha has never looked back. 1956 was the year when MV Agusta won their first GP title. Since then, the Italian bike maker went on to win 17 consecutive GP titles from 1958 to 1974. Honda, one f the biggest rivals of Yamaha in the current racing scenario, entered the GP races in 1954, just two years before Yamaha. Since then, they have won 22 constructor championships, the highest ever, followed by MV Agusta with 18 and Yamaha with 17.

This has been possible with the efforts of hundreds of men who have built, maintained, tuned, and ridden these motorcycles. Let's take a peek into this winning heritage of Yamaha one decade at a time and try to honour some of the heroes and machines that have made this feat possible. 

1. 1960-1969

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In the first decade of Yamaha's winning streak, they managed to get a total of 63 first positions wins. The hero of this decade was certainly Phillip William Read aka Phil Read. The English racer used seven different bikes to win 34 races in the championship. But, he was most successful on his 250cc RD56, recording 13 GP wins all over the world. Another racer who made a significant contribution was William David Ivy. Commonly known as Bill Ivy, the English racer recorded 21 victories in this decade, with most of them coming on his 250cc RD05A. This decade certainly set the bar high for Yamaha, with the 500cc/MotoGP  clearly being dominated by MV Agusta, with all the 10 GP championships going to them. 

2. 1970-1979

Now that Yamaha had the winning formula, there was no stopping them. The second decade was the best for Yamaha as the brand recorded a massive 161 victories. But, unlike the last decade where Phill recorded more than 50 per cent of the victories, this decade saw many riders coming together to get to this total. The most successful among them was the Swedish rider Kent Andersson, who recorded 16 victories in this decade. 14 of these were achieved on the Yamaha 125 bike. Speaking of bikes, the most success bikes of the decade were the Yamaha 350, TZ350 and the Yamaha 250, each crossing the finish line first 21 times. Jarno Saarinen, who was also a 250cc rider from Finland came very close to Andersson with 15 victories under his belt. Yamaha won three 500cc championships in this period with Giacomo Agostini in 1975 and with Kenny Roberts in 1978 and 1979. Kenny Roberts went on to win the 1980 title as well on the Yamaha. 

3. 1980-1989

Another Successful decade for Yamaha, these ten years saw the team finish first on 97 occasions. But this time around, it was the 500cc class where the team reached new heights, thanks to the capable hands of Eddie lawson. The American racer won 26 races from 1984 to 1988. The Venezuelan rider Carlos Alberto Lavado Jones who rode in the 250cc class, won 18 races in this time and had a winning streak of 6 races for Yamaha. Out of his 18 victories, 10 were recorded on the TZ250, which was the most successful bike with 23 victories. Yamaha won four 500cc championships in this decade with Kenny Roberts in 1980 and Eddie Lawson in 1984, 1986 and 1988. 

4. 1990-1999

This decade saw Yamaha's victory bulk shift from 250cc to 500cc. Out of the total 52 victories, 34 were in the 500cc class with Wayne Wesley Rainey winning 20 of them in the first three years! The American rider even recorded two winning streaks of six consecutive races for Yamaha in 1990 and 1991. The most successful bike in this decade was still a 250 - YZR250 (0WB9). Another successful Yamaha rider in this decade was Luca Cadalora, an Italian who registered a total of nine victories - three in the 250cc class in 1990 and 6 in the 500cc class from 1993 onwards. Wayne Rainey won three 500cc championships for Yamaha in this decade, in 1990, 1991 and 1992. All in all, Honda dominated the decade with six GP titles. 

5. 2000-2009

This decade was all about the Doctor joining Yamaha to conquer the GP. The 2004 season started at Welkom in South Africa where Rossi won his first Yamaha race at the Phakisa Freeway. With this win, he also became the only rider to win consecutive races with different manufacturers as he had won his last race on the Honda. Rossi won seven championships in this time period, four of which were with Yamaha. In 2005, Rossi won the championship with a massive lead of 147 points. In these 10 years, he won 44 races with Yamaha and clearly dominated the decade. Jorge Lorenzo also joined Yamaha in this decade, in 2008, and later became the world champion in 2010. Yamaha won 69 races in this decade. 

6. 2010-2017

The current decade has been dominated by Honda in the Championships by far. As far as Yamaha is concerned, Jorge Lorenzo has done considerably well on the grid with three championship titles and 39 wins out of a total of 53. Now though, he as made a move to the Ducati Team. The bikes which have won the most races this decade have been the YZR-M1 (0WS9) and the YZR-M1 (0WV0), both crossing the finish line first on 11 occasions. Also, this year, Maverick Viñales has joined Yamaha and been extremely successful with 3 wins out of the 5 races held by far. He is also among the favourites to win the GP title this season. 

Since tasting its first victory in 1963, Yamaha has gone on to win 500 races in the GP and here is the final scorecard. 

We congratulate Yamaha on this achievement and wish them the best for years to come.