Fresh colours – fresh start for Pramac Yamaha 🎨🏁
- Ben Grayson
- Jan 14
- 3 min read
Last night, 13/01/26, the covers came off the 2026 Yamaha M1, and for the first time we saw Toprak Razgatlioglu in full MotoGP trim alongside seasoned teammate Jack Miller in Pramac Racing colours.
Pramac have been one of the most interesting teams to watch over the last few seasons. I remember sitting there at the end of 2024, after they’d beaten the Ducati factory team to the world championship with Jorge Martín, and thinking:
When was the last time a non-factory team actually won the MotoGP World Championship?
Want to know the answer?
Just twice.
Valentino Rossi won the 2001 premier-class title riding for Nastro Azzurro Honda, not the official Repsol Honda factory squad
Jorge Martín, with Pramac, in 2024
That is no small achievement. Factory teams have bigger budgets, more engineers, more influence, and first call on development. What Pramac pulled off deserves far more respect than it often gets 👏
So why walk away from Ducati? 🤨
That’s why it genuinely surprised me when team boss Paolo Campinoti effectively jumped ship to Yamaha during the 2024 season — at a time when the Yamaha was arguably one of the worst bikes on the grid, and in doing so lost Jorge Martín to Aprilia Racing.
The official line is that there was no “falling out”, just a strategic reset.
Sorry… but who’s buying that BS? 😅
Winning equals money.Money equals power, influence, and status.That’s why teams exist at this level.
I don’t believe anyone deliberately chooses to make life harder for themselves.
From my outside view, Pramac winning the title should have meant factory status for 2025 — and arguably Jorge Martín absolutely deserved a factory Ducati seat in red.
Instead, factory-level support was handed to VR46 Racing Team and Gresini Racing (why, who knows), while Ducati seemed to trip over themselves to put Marc Márquez on the second factory bike — a move that would understandably put Martín’s nose well out of joint.
From the outside, it felt emotional rather than strategic.
2025: a reality check for Pramac Yamaha 📉
The 2025 season with Yamaha was always going to be tough — and it showed.
Miguel Oliveira and Jack Miller had mixed results but ultimately struggled with the M1, just as the factory team did.
Miguel’s best result was 9th, and he finished 20th overall — this from a former race winner and front-runner
Jack Miller’s screen-biting mentality meant that at times he was the best Yamaha on track, but he often went backwards in races through no fault of his own
His best finish was 5th
He ended the season 17th overall, one of his toughest MotoGP campaigns to date
Is there hope for 2026? 👀
I think so — but with caveats.
There are two big developments I’ll be watching closely:
Yamaha’s gradual move towards a new V4 engine
The arrival of Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha have serious ground to make up on engine performance, and pairing a V4 with a new chassis will dramatically change the DNA of the Yamaha M1 — a bike traditionally built around corner speed rather than outright top-end performance.
For Pramac Yamaha, I expect steady progress rather than miracles. With major rule changes coming in 2027, I suspect a lot of focus will be on making sure they hit the ground running when the reset button is properly pressed.
What about Toprak and Miller? 🏍️
For Toprak, 2026 is about learning:
The bike
New tracks
New rules
Aero
MotoGP race craft
I don’t expect podiums, but I do expect moments of brilliance when opportunities appear ✨
As for Jack Miller — I enjoy watching him, but I can’t shake the feeling that 2025 will be his final year in MotoGP before a move to WorldSBK.
He’s had some great seats in the paddock but never quite made the waves many expected. Put him on a factory WorldSBK machine, though, and I genuinely think we could see a new version of Miller emerge.
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