Game over for Fiat-Yamaha

The four-year Fiat-Yamaha
MotoGP partnership has
eventually came to an end.
The team's official Twitter
page @fiatyamahateam
confirms that “The team will
change title sponsor and
therefore it won't be "Fiat
Yamaha Team" anymore. ”
The official website also
confirms this.
Fiat's departure had been
expected due to Italian
superstar Valentino Rossi's
switch from Yamaha to
Ducati, despite winning all
three MotoGP titles in 2010,
and retaining new world
champion Jorge Lorenzo for
the upcoming 2011 season.
Fiat-liveried YZR-M1s have
won the Riders' and Teams'
World Championship every
year since 2008. Fiat was
Yamaha's first non-tobacco
title sponsor of the four-
stroke MotoGP era. Its debut
in 2007 season brought little
success.
Fiat was confident that
MotoGP allowed it to access a
younger car-buying audience
than F1, although an Italian
car manufacturer sponsoring
a Japanese motorcycle team
may be seen as a strange mix.
With this in mind, would it be
possible that Fiat would be
putting their name on a red
Italian bike next?
News are that Air Asia and
Telefonica are showing
interest in the sponsorship
position vacated by the Italian
carmaker, but so far no deal
has been concluded. Ther is
also the possibility that a
corporate Yamaha livery
could be used by Lorenzo and
new team-mate Ben Spies in
2011.
Yamaha has won the triple
crown of Riders', Teams' and
Manufacturers' titles for the
past three years running,
making it the most successful
manufacturer of recent
seasons. Should Team Yamaha
be unable to secure a title
sponsor of value, it will be a
further worrying sign for
MotoGP economics.