The
Yamaha YZR-M1 is an motorcycle specifically developed by
Yamaha Motor Company to race in the current
MotoGP series. It succeeded the
YZR500 by the
2002 season and was originally developed with a engine. Since then, the YZR-M1 has been continuously developed into several iterations.
2002–2003
2002 was the first season which allowed 990 cc
4-strokes to be raced alongside 500 cc
2-strokes. In a change from their
V-4 YZR500, Yamaha designed the YZR-M1 (for "Mission One") with an
inline-4 engine, in order to have a longer
swingarm and shorter
wheelbase. Also, Yamaha wanted to preserve the superior handling of the YZR500, so the M1's engine was designed to fit in a chassis similar to the YZR500's. The M1 was outfitted with an electronic engine management system that controlled the
engine braking endemic to 4-strokes.
The M1 was test-ridden and developed by
Max Biaggi,
John Kocinski,
Norihiko Fujiwara and Kyoji Namba throughout 2001. It was raced in the 2002 season by Biaggi and
Carlos Checa on the factory team, and towards the end of the season M1s were also provided to
Norifumi Abe,
Olivier Jacque and
Shinya Nakano. In
2003, the engine went from
carburetion to
fuel injection, and the Engine Management System was changed to the Idle Control System.
Biaggi achieved 2 wins in 2002, and...
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