Yamaha YZR-M1

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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