A long year of preparation, racing and 2015 testing was recently completed by Yamaha Factory Racing as the Michele Rinaldi-run operation started to wind down towards the Christmas break and with one eye on a busy January schedule on the island of Sardinia.
Italian Championships, Belgian series race wins, outstanding MXGP podium streaks and a stellar victory at the Grand Prix of Czech Republic as well as a runner-up position for Jeremy Van Horebeek in his first term on the YZ450FM were the standout moments of ‰Ûª14‰Û_but it did not take long for the Italian crew to switch thoughts to the eighteen round GP schedule next year once the Motocross of Nations wrapped.
‰Û÷JVH‰Ûª and new team-mate Frenchman Romain Febvre were visitors to southern Europe as work on the ‰Ûª15 spec of the YZ450FM took place. For Febvre in particular the first shakedowns with the technology he‰Ûªll use in his rookie season in the premier MXGP class were important and a second test was unfortunately interrupted by a small right shoulder injury that means a few weeks respite from track action.
‰ÛÏRomain started off with - and liked - the production YZ450F and at the test we were building up with the race bike. He unluckily had a crash while doing some laps and a little problem. He is OK and is continuing to train in the gym but we had to stop riding for a while,‰Û
