One of the most volatile riders on the MotoGP grid, with a track record for abrupt team exits, joining a manufacturer that's making little progress and whose departing lead rider has been openly disgruntled about its bike for years.
That's one way to look at Jorge Martin's 2027 Yamaha move, which was finally officially announced on Wednesday morning, over four months after the deal was done.
But given the way Martin's career has trended so far, it wouldn't be a total shock if this worked out just fine.
After all, he's leading the world championship right now for a team he tried to leave last summer before he'd even really raced for it, and despite having missed a whole pre-season again this year.
Martin and his management jumping for Yamaha amid the rapid dominoes of the early 2027 moves in the winter felt appropriate. Yamaha needed to quickly secure a talisman, having lost Fabio Quartararo to Honda. Honda was where Martin was supposed to be going when he tried to quit Aprilia in mid-2025. Martin + Yamaha = Two rejected parties quickly hooking up in reaction to others' decisions.
A lot of question marks that existed around Martin when Yamaha committed to him now feel answered. Back then, he'd just revealed that he wasn't actually going to fit for the start of 2026 after all. His title defence had been a litany of injuries, and his attempt to quit Aprilia while sidelined had done his public standing no favours.
And yet by round three of 2026 he was a race winner again. He's now leading the championship. The massive team and bike relationship advantage Marco Bezzecchi should've had over him has been overcome... or at least overcome sufficiently. None of the mess and madness that came before seemed to matter.
Maybe it will as the title fight progresses. But right now, Martin and Aprilia are - despite all the obstacles Martin's put in the way - a success. He doesn't feel like he's properly on top of the bike and he's still not completely fit. He's still leading the championship.
But if Martin has proved himself all over again since signing for Yamaha, Yamaha's done less to justify Martin's faith - or the faith of his high-powered future team-mate Ai Ogura, whose signing was also announced on Wednesday.
This year was always planned as a semi-write-off, all about developing the new V4-engined bike. Listen to any of its current riders though, and that development process sounds like it's flatlining. Progress is not living up to hopes or expectations.
But this is Martin. Someone who contentiously snuck out of a KTM contract to get into MotoGP with Ducati instead, got snubbed for works seats there multiple times, 'rage quit' for Aprilia when snubbed yet again... still won the world championship as a satellite Ducati. Leading the championship now despite all the reasons he really, really logically shouldn't be. He could arrive at Yamaha as a double MotoGP champion - even though he will have only had two injury-wracked seasons as a factory rider.
Weird, surprising, generally brilliant, things happen in Martin's career. So don't be too dismissive of what Martin-plus-Yamaha can be.
from The Race https://ift.tt/h4xkInR
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