For the first time since 2012, the Factory Yamaha team goes into a MotoGP season without Valentino Rossi, having signed Fabio 🥃Quartararo to join Maverick Vinales for 2021.

"It's great that Valentino continues in the sport, with the full factory support of Yamaha, but he'll be next door at Petro🌳nas with Frankie. I think it can be good 𓃲for him," said Yamaha Racing managing director LinJarvis.

"From our side, having Fabio join us,❀ a young really exciting rider coupled together with Maverick, we have these young superstar riders with all the potential to win. We're excited. It's a generation change,๊ but I think it will work well.

"We kꦬnow Maverick has the speed, there's no question," Jarvis added. 𒆙"We have to rule out the inconsistencies and manage the bad days, also because of our bike, because he's difficult to beat when he's on form."

Of Quartararo, Jarvis said: "I have a lot of confidence in Fabio, he's still very young but he's had two good years in MotoGP, rookie of the year and then winning three races last year. In my opinion he has all the expeirence and raw speed. I don't think joining the Factory team will bring more pressure, he had more pressure last year because he won the first two races✃.

"Just like Maverick, I think he will bꦚe a title contender.

"When we♚ had the Lorenzo-Rossi era, they pushed each other and stepped up and we want to be in that zone again.

"This i✤s the💯 third year of our four-year deal with Monster and we want to deliver the title.

"Our 🔯;livery looks very similar this year and that's a good thing because it means our sponsors have remained on board."

Yamaha won more races than any other manufacturer last season, with seven victories from the 14 ro🔯unds.

But only one win, by Vinales at Misano, was by🀅 the Official tea👍m, with Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli claiming three wins each for the satellite Petronas outfit.

Quartararo also led the championship standings for most of the season bꦡut, like Vinales and Rossi, battled frustrating hit-and-miss form on the latest Factory-spec bike and eventually dropped all the way down to eighth.

Meanwhile Morbidelli, on the '2019' A-Spe♏⛦c machine, rose to finish as Yamaha's top rider in the standings, behind only Suzuki's champion Joan Mir. Vinales was best of the Factory-spec riders, in sixth overall.

Valve problems – in the form of reliability issues at Jerez and ultimately a penalty for changing supplier – hung-over Yamaha for much of last s💞eason, meaning riders were unable to mak𒈔e full use of their engine allocation.

Although engine design remains frozen for 2021, the Yamaha riders will at least have a full line-up of engines available for this year, which means they can use maximum revs once again (having cut back🐲 by 500rpm until Misano last season).

For the chassis, there will be some big decisions to make in terms of whether ꦦto switch back to a frame similar to M𝓰orbidelli's specification, or push further in the direction of the 2020 Factory spec.

"The engine is just one elemen♌t of the bike," Yamaha MotoGP Project Leader Takahiro Sumi said of the Covid technical freeze. "We are looking to improve our engine performance by working outside of the engine unit🎃 itself. We are also working on the chassis and can update the aerodynamics this year."

While Vinales, 26, has been a clear step ahead of Rossi in terms of results for the past two seasons, he is likely to face a tougher challenge from 21-yꦬear-old Quartararo.

Each will be eager to prove they are the future of Yamaha - "healthy competition" as Sumi called it - but first they must work together to solve the turning and rear grip problems that left&n🐭bsp;both without a podium during the last six rounꦡds of 2020.

"Consistency is the key word for this season," confirmed Yamaha team♓ directꦡor Massimo Meregalli.

Rossi is swapping places with Quartar🍸aro to ride alongside Morbid𒁃elli at Petronas this year.