On September 18, on the eve of the ninth round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship and the start of Cremona, Italy, the Yamaha WorldSBK factory team showcased its factory car-spec 2025 YZF-R1. On the same day, Yamaha unveiled the 2025 YZF-R1 race-specific base car and YZF-R1 GYTR race car to the European market, and the 2025 YZF-R1 and 2025 YZF-R1M in North America.
Referring to the list of WorldSBK-certified models released by FIM on the same day, the 2025 YZF-R1 with factory number D45 (the previous version was factory number B3L/Standard, B4S/YZF-R1M) is already on the list. Also included in this latest list of certified products are KOVE Flyer 321 RR-S (Plant No. P310) and QJ Motor's SRK 800 RR (Plant No. QJ800GS-G).
The Yamaha WorldSBK Factory Team will compete in the new 2025 YZF-R1 factory race car for the final four races starting in Cremona and ending the 2024 season. One of the more noticeable external changes to the new car compared to the previous 2024 spec car is the MotoGP-style front fixed wing.
Commenting on their new car, Andrea Dosoli, European Road Racing and R&D Manager at Yamaha Motor, said, "I'm delighted that starting with FP1, our drivers will be able to use the full potential of the new 2025 [racing] package. I'm also looking forward to seeing our drivers in the race this week." The production-spec base car (with a fixed wing) was an important step, with the new design creating some downforce and adding stability to the car, giving the front end a better feel when entering corners and braking, and more stable wheels when exiting corners... In addition, we have made considerable improvements to the front end, the fork and braking system have been greatly improved, and we are confident that this new car will help our drivers in world-class competitions, although (due to race rules) we can't make too many modifications to the car [later in the season], which is the result of the day and night work of our engineers from Germany, Italy and Japan." ”
"We're (still) far behind our competitors, but we believe that [the new car] could already be the first step [to be more competitive] and it's important that we've already managed to take that step – putting this new car into the race with four races left so that we can collect more data closer to the 2025 specs, and we expect our cars to take their performance to the next level by the 2025 season."
At Cremona, Yamaha Motor presented two different specs of the 2025 YZF-R1: the factory-spec YZF-R1 with a foil that closely resembles the MotoGP car, while the independent team uses a car that is comparable to the commercially available YZF-R1 without a large design.
