San Marino GP: Yamaha switch to seamless gearbox

Yamaha have upgraded to a seamless gearbox

The Yamaha Factory Racing team have finally debuted the new seamless gearbox at the San Marino Grand Prix which improves stability and shortens shifting time.

Valentino Rossi was delighted to have the new gearbox installed. He said: “Yamaha has made a fantastic job with the gearbox; it is a great help for the riders. It’s not a big advantage with lap time but the bike becomes a lot easier to ride, more stable in acceleration and less wheelie. You can concentrate more on riding, it is less demanding so I think for the race it will be a big help.”

Rossi’s teammate and reigning champion Lorenzo said: “When we tried it in Brno I was smiling, to not feel the drop in power when changing gear. It’s like you are riding an automatic. Probably the point you feel it most is when up shifting while cornering. Normally the bike moves when you do this, but with the seamless it does not. Let’s see what we can gain in the race.”

Lorenzo, currently, sits in the 3rd position, 39 points behind Championship leader Marc Marquez. With this change he can try to reduce the gap in the coming races.

Yamaha’s rivals Honda and Ducati already use a similar technology.