YZF-R9 Wins on Debut: Developing Riders in Pursuit of Victory
Yamaha press releases on our motor sports racing activities
March 14, 2025
March 14, 2025—Phillip Island, Australia, February 21-23, 2025. In the southern hemisphere, the seasons were changing from summer to autumn, and the Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP) got underway alongside the 2025 Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK). At the event, Yamaha’s latest supersport model, the YZF-R9, made its racing debut.
Unveiled in October 2024, the R9 is equipped with a CP3 (Crossplane Concept three-cylinder) engine that delivers plenty of torquey power, mounted in a newly-designed aluminum frame that is the lightest of any supersport model in Yamaha history. Its highly aerodynamic “winglets” are derived from MotoGP technology, and have now become an icon in production supersport machines. Representing a new wave of supersport motorcycles, the R9 is now in the process of being released in Europe and North America.
With the goal of demonstrating the R9’s potential to the world, Yamaha made the decision to enter it for competition in WorldSSP. Once the decision was made, the R9 was quickly modified into a race-spec machine, and soon after was ready to compete. Fielding the new R9 is the Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing WorldSSP Supported Team with riders Stefano Manzi and Yuki Okamoto, Yamaha BLU CRU Evan Bros WorldSSP Supported Team with riders Aldi Satya Mahendra and Can Öncü, and the GMT94 Yamaha WorldSSP Supported Team with riders Lucas Mahias and Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
In the past, supersport racing was done on 4-cylinder 600cc or under, or 3-cylinder 675cc or under, or 2-cylinder 750cc or under machines. From the time the 4-cylinder 600cc YZF-R6 was launched in 1999 until the 2024 season, Yamaha contested WorldSSP with it. During those 25 years, it won 147 races, took 404 podium finishes and won 10 world titles, including six consecutive titles (2017 to 2022).
As this was happening, young, talented riders like Cal Crutchlow (2009), Chaz Davies (2011), Sam Lowes (2013), and more recently Andrea Locatelli (2020) and Dominique Aegerter (2021-2022) have become WorldSSP champions, and some have gone on to ride in WorldSBK, Moto2, and MotoGP. The thing they all have in common is that they honed their skills on the R6.
However, from 2023 onward, the R6 began to face an uphill battle. One factor is thought to be that as production ended for several supersport models in the market, the response was to introduce new “Next Generation” regulations, which allowed motorcycles with larger displacements to compete, and rival manufacturers who took advantage of these quickly boosted their competitiveness. In 2025, Yamaha has brought our own “Next Generation” machine, the YZF-R9.
In the Superpole qualifying session on Saturday, February 22, Mahias qualified on the front row in 3rd, while Öncü was on the second row in 4th. In Race 1, the opening race of the 2025 season, starting from 8th place on the grid, Manzi battled against rivals in a thrilling display on his way to taking the R9’s first ever race win. He then followed it up with a strong 2nd place finish in Race 2 to get the season off to a positive start.
It was not only Manzi's victory that was noteworthy. 21-year-old Öncü took 6th in Race 1, while Rinaldi and Mahias finished 4th and 6th, respectively, in Race 2.
Also, 18 year old rider Mahendra, who won the Supersport 300 World Championship (WorldSSP300) in 2024, then moved up to WorldSSP this year with the support of Yamaha Motor and Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing (YIMM), finished 13th in Race 2, scoring points in the opening round. All the riders achieved positive results to give them a boost going into the rest of the season. *Okamoto was injured in the pre-event test and missed the opening round.
The R9's mission is to go for wins and develop personnel. Towards the latter, the team Mahendra rides for has “BLU CRU,” Yamaha’s personnel development program, in its name, and as such the team offers seats to talented young riders. In fact, Mahendra is the first rider to step up to WorldSSP after winning the Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup, which is held in conjunction with WorldSBK. He is a role model for BLU CRU’s personnel development. The R9, like the R6 before it, is tasked with honing riders’ skills and promoting professional staff development.
The target for the R9 is to win the WorldSSP title for Yamaha for the first time since 2022, and also to develop riders with the skill and potential to step up to the BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2 team.
Yamaha and the R9 have embarked on a difficult and exciting challenge that is sure to produce new talent. The YZF-R9 is now being released in Europe and North America.
Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. (YMENV)
