1994

Luca Cadalora and Daryl Beattie from Marlboro Yamaha Team Roberts and Bernard Garcia from Yamaha Motor France competed this season on YZR500's. Cadalora in his second year in the 500cc class dropped to 8th position in the ranking at one point in the season, but eventually gained a total of 174 points with two wins, two 2nd-place finishes, and two 3rd-place finishes. He came from behind in the final round to finish 2nd in the ranking. His teammate Beattie finished the season in 13th.

Cadalora made a good start from the season opener in Australia by finishing 2nd and recording the fastest lap of the race. However, he finished 4th in the following race in Malaysia after struggling with a poor tire choice. In the third round in Japan, he finished 4th again despite starting from pole position. His season got tougher from here on. Rear wheel trouble led to early retirement in the fourth round in Spain. He was also forced to change his tires in the following round in Austria, and he finished well outside of the points in 22nd. Then, in the next round in Germany, he injured his right hand during qualifying and never made it to the start line of the race. With three no-pointers in a row, he dropped to eighth in the ranking.

The tables started to turn from the seventh round in the Netherlands, however. He rode a bike with an updated frame to finish 9th, while working through the pain. In his home GP, he showed that he was truly recovered by taking his second pole position of the season. Cadalora relinquished the win to Mick Doohan (Honda) in the race, but he brought his championship hopes back by adding 20 points to his tally by finishing 2nd. He finished 7th in the ninth round in France, followed by 3rd-place finishes in the 10th and the 11th rounds. In the 12th round in the USA, Cadalora took its first win of the season by an 8-second margin over American John Kocinski (Cagiva). Doohan clinched the title here with races in Argentina and Catalunya still remaining, so the focus turned to who would get 2nd in the championship ranking. In the final round, Cadalora, who had a 7-point deficit with the 2nd-ranked Kocinski, started from pole and had a solid ride despite some showers from mid-race to take his second win of the season. Kocinski meanwhile finished 3rd, which gave Cadalora 2nd place in the championship ranking by just two points over Kocinski.

Beattie, on the other hand, faced with a myriad of issues earlier on in the season. Yet he began to recover form from mid-season. Then, after taking a fall in the ninth round in France, he had to sit out the following races. Despite making a comeback in the final round, his nine no-pointers meant that he ended his season in 13th. Norifumi Abe substituted as rider for the injured Beattie. Abe competed on the YZR500 for the first time in the tenth round in Britain, but broke his wrist in a fall in practice, and could not compete in the race. Abe came back in good form, however, finishing 6th in the following two Grand Prix events in Czechoslovakia and the USA. Out of the 33 riders who were awarded points, 5 riders were on YZR500's, and 19 were on ROC Yamaha and Harris Yamaha machines.

The defending champion Tetsuya Harada from Yamaha Motor France and Kenny Roberts Jr. from Marlboro Yamaha competed the 1994 series on the TZ250M. Harada tallied 109 points this season and finished 7th in the ranking with one 2nd-place finish and two 3rd-place finishes. Harada took a fall in the qualifying of the season opener in Australia, breaking his hand. He had to sit out the second round. He returned to racing from the third round, the Japanese GP. With his injury still affecting his riding, he finished 9th in the race. Then he finished 7th in the following race in Spain. Despite his injury beginning to heal, machine trouble forced him out of the race in lap one of the Austrian GP. He finished 7th in the following German GP, but he got hit by a rival while running 2nd in the following round in the Netherlands, which forced him out of the race. He regained his form from round eight in Italy. He took his first podium finish of the year with a 2nd place, finishing narrowly behind Ralf Waldmann (Honda). He was then able to score points consistently, except for a single no-pointer in the 11th round in the Czech Republic due to engine trouble. Harada showed competitive form again in the final phase of the season, including consecutive 3rd-place finishes in the 12th and 13th rounds. His results in the early part of the year meant that he was only able to finish the season ranked 7th overall.

Yoshiaki Kato season competed in the GP from Team Aspar this season riding the same TZ125 that had powered him to 1993 All Japan Championship title. He was paired with Jorge Martínez, a former 80cc and 125cc champion. Martínez won the 13th round in Argentina, which was the first win for Yamaha in 20 years in this class, since the Czechoslovakia in 1975 won by the Swedish rider Leif Gustafsson. Martínez finished the season ranked 7th. A series of misfortunes meant that Kato was only able to gain eight points this year.
Although Martínez finished without points in the opening round, he finished 3rd in the following round in Malaysia. In the subsequent rounds in Japan and Germany he was only able to finish 7th. However in the Netherlands, he was able to bring himself back to the podium by finishing 2nd. He then went on to battle for the lead. In the 13th and final round in Argentina, he took the lead in lap two after qualifying in 2nd place, but it became a two-man race when Noboru Ueda (Honda) caught up with Martínez. The pair traded positions three times in the final lap, and Martínez finished just three-tenths of a second in front of Ueda.