Jarvis is 66 years old and has been at the helm of Yamaha’s racing division for 26 years.

As Yamaha team boss, the Briton played a very important role in the resurrection of the company in the mid-2000s.

Together with Davide Brivio, he was able to convince Valentino Rossi to join the project in 2004 when the Italian was already a three-time champion with Honda.

With Rossi, Yamaha took the title in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009, before entering the era of Jorge Lorenzo, who was crowned champion in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

After a period of dominance for Marc Marquez and Honda — six titles out of a possible seven between 2013 and 2019 — Fabio Quartararo regained the crown for Yamaha in 2021.

There have been a total of eight world titles won by Yamaha under Jarvis. 

One of the Briton’s latest contributions was to seal the renewal of Quartararo, announced last week, to a new two-year deal.

Fabio Quartararo, Lin Jarvis, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Yamaha

Next on his agenda is to strike a deal with one of the independent teams, to regain the satellite structure that Yamaha gave up after not renewing its deal with RNF for 2023.

«This will be my last season at Yamaha, I will quit at the end of the year,» Jarvis told Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview on Thursday at the Americas Grand Prix. «I will decide later what I’m going to do, what I will dedicate my time to.»

«I started the factory team in 1999. It has been an unusually long period. I’m 66 years old now and I’m starting to get a little tired of travelling.

«I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and it’s quite extraordinary for the same person to lead a project, in a factory, for such a long period.

«The time has come to do something new.

«It’s the ideal time to make this transition. We have to be able to close my chapter and start the new one, in harmony. That is the best solution for both parties.

«We have already identified the candidate who will most likely become my successor, although it has not yet been made official.

«But it will be a man from the Yamaha group, who will take over my position in January next year.»

Despite not wanting to reveal the name of his replacement, Motorsport.com understands that the ideal candidate in the eyes of the brand’s executive committee is Paolo Pavesio, currently marketing and racing department director for Yamaha Europe.

The Italian is closely linked to racing and is a regular at WorldSBK and motocross events for Yamaha.

Like Honda, Yamaha is benefiting from the operational and technical advantages approved at the end of last year in an attempt to help the manufacturers most in need from a performance point of view.

One very beneficial aspect of the concessions is the possibility for the race riders to carry out private test days, limited only by the number of tyres available — which has also increased.

Another advantage is to be able to develop the engine which, unlike the constructors without concessions, is not frozen.

Since the beginning of the year, Honda has been following an extensive testing programme, with around 22 private events scheduled — although it is unlikely all will be completed as the concessions will be recalculated during the summer break, depending on the results obtained until then.

So far, Honda’s Luca Marini has made the most of these concessions, and before the Portuguese GP he was riding at Jerez to try to speed up his adaptation to the RC213V.

Yamaha was not as aggressive initially, the Iwata-based company setting a roadmap with the European calendar as a reference.

Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins stayed at Portimao on the Monday after the last race in order to improve the performance of the bike which, so far, has not allowed either rider to finish in the top five in the two rounds held so far.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

One of the aspects that has weighed Yamaha down the most in recent years is the lack of punch from its engine. In fact, Yamaha hired the services of Marmotors — the consultancy firm owned by renowned engine engineer Luca Marmorini, known for his time at Ferrari and Toyota in Formula 1 and Aprilia, among others.

After crossing the finish line seventh at Portimao, Quartararo was asked if he could give any clues as to the elements he should test the following day.

«Hopefully we will be able to test several things,» said the Frenchman. «I think we have a lot of parts.

«Let’s hope that the weather will respect us. I don’t know if I can say exactly what we’ll be testing, so I’d rather not say anything.»

Motorsport.com has learned one of the most important components that Quartararo was to test was a new engine specification.

It is a different specification to the one used so far, but with Yamaha’s signature inline four-cylinder configuration. A V4 power unit does not seem to fit in the Japanese factory’s plans, at least in the short term.

However, the bad weather that Monday in the Algarve area — especially the strong wind — prevented Quartararo and Rins from completing the planned programme with both riders restricted to six laps each.

In these conditions, Yamaha technicians opted not to fit the new engine to Quartararo’s bike, leaving its evaluation for a later date. It remains to be seen, however, whether the power unit will be fitted to the #20 and #42 bikes this weekend in Austin.